I 


,;SS?J.\\K;;:S\-®- 


FROM   THE  LIBRARY  OF 
REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM  TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Section  /^ 


/  / 


FiKST  Baptist  Church  (Meeting  Hoi'se),  Providence,  K.  L 


V 


^ 


\^^ 


oSSTOFl^ 


a; 


APR  22  1932 


THE  MOTHER  CHURCH    V^. 


'iOGiGM  ^m^ 


A  BRIEF  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ORIGIN 
AND  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  FIRST 
BAPTIST     CHURCH     IN     PROVIDENCE 


BY  /(/ 

HENRY  MELVILLE  KING,  D.  D. 


PHILADELPHIA 
AMERICAN    BAPTIST    PUBLICATION    SOCIETY 

1420  Chestnut  Street 


Copyright  1896  by  the 
American  Baptist  Piklication  Society 


^0  tbe  Sacrc^  flUemori? 

OF  THOSE   OF   PAST  GENERATIONS,  WHOSE 
PRAYERS  AND  TOILS  AND   SELF-DE- 
NIALS  HAVE   MINISTERED  TO 
THE   UNBROKEN   LIFE 
OF   THE 

FIRST    BAPTIST    CHURCH    IN    PROVIDENCE 

AND   TO   THE 
LIVING   MEMBERS  OF 
THE  CHURCH  WHO   HAVE   IN- 
HERITED A   LEGACY  OF  PECULIAR 
HONOR    AND   GREAT    RESPONSIBILITY 
THIS  BRIEF  ACCOUNT  OF  ITS  EARLY  HISTORY 

Us  Bffectionatele  DeDicateD 


PREFACE 


American  Baptists  must  always  be  interested  in 
the  beginnings  of  the  denomination  in  this  country. 
The  present  wide  discussion  indicates  that  the 
interest  does  not  abate  as  the  years  go  by.  Every 
fresh  effort  to  bring  to  hght  the  facts  of  our  early 
history  is  certain  to  receive  a  cordial  welcome. 
What  we  all  desire  to  know  is  the  truth,  that  we 
may  honor  those  to  whom  hoiioris  due,  and  gather 
courage  and  inspiration  from  the  heroic  example, 
the  loyal  fidelity,  and  the  patient  sufferings  of  the 
fathers.  An  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  history 
of  the  past  ought  to  enable  us  to  make  better  his- 
tory in  the  future.  Amid  the  discussions  which 
are  constantly  arising,  we  realize  more  and  more 
the  importance  of  preserving  all  records  and  his- 
toric documents.  Complete  records  pertaining  to 
the  first  century  of  our  denominational  history  in 
this  country  would  be  invaluable. 

This  little  volume  contains  a  brief  address  on  the 
early  Baptists  of  Rhode  Island,  which  was  prepared 
by  request,  and  delivered  in  the  First  Baptist  meet- 
ing-house in  Providence,  July  i6,  1895,  before  the 
Massachusetts  delegates  01  route  to  the  Baltimore 


0  PREFACE 

Convention  of  the  Baptist  Young  People's  Union 
of  America.  It  is  allowed  to  remain  as  it  was 
delivered,  because  it  presents  in  careful  outline, 
unencumbered  by  discussions,  the  early  history 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church  which  is  believed  by 
the  church  to  be  correct,  and  has  been  accepted 
generally  by  historians  and  by  the  denomination. 
Explanatory  notes  have  been  added,  covering 
matters  of  great  historical  interest  not  generally 
known,,  giving  reasons  for  statements  made  in  the 
address,  describing  the  present  venerable  meeting- 
house occupied  by  the  First  Baptist  Church  (Note 
1 6),  and  discussing  at  considerable  length  the  bap- 
tism of  Roger  Williams  (Note  4),  and  also  the 
questions  of  the  priority  of  the  church,  and  the  un- 
broken continuity  of  its  life  (Notes  18,  19,  and 
20).  Access  has  been  had  to  all  published  docu- 
ments relating  to  these  matters,  as  far  as  known, 
and  valuable  manuscript  testimony  recently  discov- 
ered has  been  adduced,  which  throws  light  upon 
some  points  which  have  been  in  dispute.  Some 
features  of  the  early  history  of  this  church,  which  is 
believed  to  be  the  first  Baptist  church  in  America, 
are  presented  here  with  a  completeness  of  treat- 
ment which  the}'  have  not  thus  far  received. 

I  desire  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to 
Reuben  A.  Guild,  i.l.  n..  librarian  emeritus  of 
Brown  University,  for  valuable  assistance  in  the 
preparation  of  these  notes. 


PREFACE  7 

The  names  of  Roger  Williams  and  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  in  Providence  will  always  be  associated 
with  each  other,  and  with  the  great  principle  of 
religious  liberty,  as  well  as  with  the  origin  of  our 
denominational  life  in  America.  It  is  coming  to 
be  conceded  more  and  more  that  this  sublime  doc- 
trine was  first  promulgated  b\-  the  Anabaptists  of 
the  old  world,  and  has  been  realized  in  civil  gov- 
ernment large])'  b\'  the  efforts  of  the  Baptists  of  the 
new  world.  Roger  Williams,  as  the  founder  of  the 
free  State  in  which  the  government  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  and  restricted  to  civil  affairs,  and 
citizenship  is  without  religious  tests,  is  held  in 
superior  honor  b}'  all  lovers  of  liberty.  As  the 
pioneer  advocate  in  this  country  of  a  regenerate 
church,  whose  corner-stone  is  personal  loyalty  to 
Christ  and  his  word,  he  can  never  be  forgotten   by 

American  Baptists. 

H.  U.  K. 

June,   1896 


THE  MOTHER  CHURCH 


THIS  is  not  the  first  time  that  Rhode  Island  has 
given  hospitable  welcome  to  exiles  from  the 
Massachusetts  Bay.  Ever  since  the  days  of  Roger 
Williams,  who,  after  being  banished  from  Salem 
and  wandering  many  days  in  the  wintry  wilderness, 
"not  knowing  what  bread  or  bed  did  mean,"  found 
on  this  side  of  the  Seekonk  a  safe  retreat  which,  in 
recognition  of  the  Dixine  leading  and  care,  he 
gratefully  called  "  Providence,"  Rhode  Island  has 
been  somewhat  noted  for  its  hospitalit}-.  We  are 
not  of  those  who  ask  "  Can  any  good  thing  come 
out  of  Nazareth?  "  To  all  who  believe  in  religious 
libert}-,  in  freedom  of  thought  and  of  worship,  in  a 
spiritual  church,  in  loyalty  to  Christ  in  all  things, 
we  extend  a  cordial  welcome,  whether  for  a  briei 
visit  or  a  longer  stav.  Once,  w  hen  Roger  Williams 
desired  to  visit  the  mother  countr\'  b}'  way  of  the 
Massachusetts  Ba^^  that  being  the  nearer  route,  he 
was   forbidden    to  do   so,   and  was   not  allowed  to 

^  An  address  delivered  in  the  First  Baptist  Meeting-house  in 
Providence,  before  the  Massachusetts  delegates  en  route  to  the 
BaMmore  Convention  of  the  Young  People's  Baptist  Union,  luly 
i6,  1895. 

9 


lO  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

cross  its  territory,  lest  his  "pestilential"  doctrines 
should  infect  the  very  atmosphere.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  go  by  way  of  New  York,  the  New 
Netherlanders,  who  had  tasted  the  spirit  of  a  larger 
freedom  in  their  old  home,  and  had  there  sheltered 
the  Pilgrim  fathers  and  mothers  during  eleven  most 
influential  years,  not  being  afraid  of  the  presence  or 
doctrine  of  this  apostle  of  soul  liberty,  but  bidding 
him  welcome  to  their  borders,  and  God-speed  on  his 
journey.  We  give  you  the  freedom  of  our  State, 
to  cross  it  at  your  leisure,  without  let  or  hindrance, 
and  if,  on  your  return,  you  shall  be  sufficienth' 
charmed  with  what  you  see  to  stay  with  us  for  the 
rest  of  your  days,  not  the  slightest  obstacle  will  be 
placed  in  your  way.  To  such  immigration  we  set 
no  restriction.  You  will  not  be  officially  admon- 
ished that  your  presence  is  not  wanted,  and  that 
"  it  is  better  farther  on,"  or  farther  off,  as  was  Roger 
Williams  even  by  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  who  feared 
to  give  offense  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Bay  by 
harboring  the  exile  within  their  borders  (Note  i); 
nor  will  you  be  "  warned  off  of  the  face  of  God's 
earth,"  as  was  one  of  the  preachers  in  Massachusetts 
in  the  last  century,  who  dared  to  be  a  Baptist,  and 
with  the  Baptists  stand.      (Note  2.) 

You  stand  to-day  on  historic  ground.  Not  far 
away  from  this  spot,  directly  east,  Roger  Williams 
cro.ssed  the  rixcr  with  his  five  companions,  and  re- 
ceived upon  the  hither  shore  the  kindl\'  greeting  of 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  I  I 

the  aboriginal  inhabitants.  (Note  3.)  Not  far 
away  from  this  spot  he  was  baptized  by  Ezekiel 
HoHman,  in  the  hkeness  of  the  Saviour's  death, 
and  in  turn  baptized  Mr.  Hohman  and  ten  others, 
they  together  making  the  apostoHc  number  and 
constituting  the  first  church  of  immersed  behevers 
in  Christ  in  this  new  world.  (Note  4.)  Not  far 
away  from  this  spot,  a  little  to  the  north,  was  the 
home  of  Roger  Williams,  where  he  thought  and 
planned  and  prayed  to  God,  and  gave  utterance  to 
those  sublime  truths  which  have  made  his  name 
resplendent  on  the  page  of  histor}-,  and  where  he 
reared  his  little  family  amid  the  hardships  and  ex- 
posures of  the  almost  unbroken  forest ;  and  not  far 
away  was  the  orchard  in  which  his  body  at  last 
found  a  peaceful  resting-place.      (Note  5.) 

Not  far  from  this  spot  those  first  settlers  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  make  "  covenantes  of  peaceable 
neighborhood  with  all  the  sachems  and  natives 
round  about,"  and  then,  ha\'mg  gained  rightful 
ownership  of  the  land,  they  entered  into  covenant 
among  themselves  to  establish  here,  in  the  immor- 
tal words  of  their  distinguished  leader,  "  a  shelter 
for  all  persons  distressed  of  conscience."  (Note  6.) 
And  so,  not  far  a'va}-  from  this  spot,  was  founded 
a  civil  State  which  protected  the  rights  of  con- 
science, which  provided  that  no  person  should  be 
molested,  punished,  or  proscribed,  for  an)-  differences 
of  religious  belief,  but  that  perfect  freedom  should 


12  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

be  offered  to  all  persons  who  chose  to  come  ;  and 
here,  in  this  Baptist  colony,  which  for  years  was  the 
object  of  Puritan  scorn  and  hate,  was  ordained,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  a  civil 
government  whose  corner-stone  was  absolute  soul 
liberty.     (Note  7.) 

"In  the  code  of  laws  established  here,"  says 
Judge  Story,  "we  read  for  the  first  time  since 
Christianity  ascended  the  throne  of  the  Caesars,  the 
declaration  that  conscience  should  be  free  and  men 
should  not  be  punished  for  worshiping  God  in  the 
way  they  were  persuaded  he  requires." 

It  is  not  claimed  that  Roger  Williams  and  his 
confreres  originated  the  idea  of  soul  libert}-.  For 
a  hundred  years  it  had  been  pleading  for  recog- 
nition in  the  old  world  in  many  voices  that  were 
silenced  only  in  death.  In  1527,  more  than  a  cen- 
tury before,  the  Swiss  Anabaptists  at  Schleitheim 
had  formulated  and  proclaimed  their  famous  Con- 
fession, the  first  known  Confession  in  the  world  in 
which  liberty  of  conscience  was  declared  to  be  the 
indestructible  right  of  all  men.  In  Germany,  in 
Holland,  and  in  England,  their  successors  had  re- 
iterated their  faith,  and  been  sent  to  the  stake  for 
it.  The  fires  kindled  about  the  helpless  bodies  of 
the  Anabaptists  in  these  lands  are  the  inextinguish- 
able halo  about  their  names  to  eyes  that  have  not 
been  blurred  by  the  smoke  of  prejudice.  The  Gen- 
eral Baptists  in  London,  in  161 1,  and  the  Particular 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  I3 

Baptists,  in  1644,  issued  their  solemn  pronunciamcii- 
toes,  declaring  the  absolute  separation  of  Church 
and  State  to  be  the  law  of  Christ.  "The  magis- 
trate by  virtue  of  his  office,"  they  affirmed  and  re- 
affirmed, "is  not  to  meddle  with  religion  or  matters 
of  conscience,  nor  to  compel  men  to  this  or  that 
form  of  religion  ;  but  to  leave  the  Christian  religion 
to  the  free  conscience  of  an)'  one,  and  to  meddle 
only  with  political  matters.  Christ  alone  is  the 
King  and  Lawgiver  of  the  church  and  conscience." 
When  a  distinguished  Episcopal  prelate  in  this 
country  asserts  that  Roger  Williams  was  the  founder 
of  the  Baptists,  and  ascribes  to  him  the  origin  of 
the  denomination,  he  is  simply  publishing  his  gross 
ignorance  of  the  facts  of  histor}^  There  was  an 
old  world,  with  its  history,  its  truths,  its  Confessions, 
its  heroes  and  martyrs,  before  the  Pilgrims  landed 
on  Plymouth  Rock,  and  before  Roger  Williams  was 
born.  Roger  Williams  was  not  the  beginner  of  our 
history,  but  the  hero  of  a  new  and  splendid  chap- 
ter. Becoming  first  a  Puritan  and  then  a  Separa- 
tist, he  allowed  his  convictions  to  carry  him  to  their 
logical  issue,  a  thing  which  the  great  Reformers  did 
not  do,  and  which  the  Puritans  did  only  in  part. 
Before  leaving  England  he  was  acquainted  with  the 
language  of  Holland,  which  had  been  consecrated 
to  liberal  ideas  and  broader  views  of  human  rights, 
for  in  that  land  liberty  had  been  for  years  strug- 
gling for  recognition,  and   had   achieved   its  most 


14  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

conspicuous  victories ;  and  he  had  been  also  on 
intimate  terms  with  English  Baptists,  to  one  of 
whom,  a  pastor  in  London,  he  paid  a  noble  and 
grateful  tribute:  "To  the  everlasting  praise  of 
Christ  Jesus,  and  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  breathing  and 
blessing  where  he  listeth,  I  cannot  but  with  honor- 
able testimony,"  he  wrote  in  the  "  Hireling  Minis- 
try," "remember  that  eminent  Christian  witness  and 
prophet  of  Christ,  even  that  despised  and  beloved 
Samuel  Howe  who,  being  by  calling  a  cobbler  and 
without  human  learning  (which  yet  in  its  sphere  and 
place  he  honored),  who  yet,  I  say,  by  searching  the 
Holy  Scriptures  grew  so  excellent  a  textuary,  or 
Scripture-learned  man.  that  few  of  those  high 
rabbis  that  scorn  to  mend  or  make  a  shoe,  could 
aptly  or  readily  from  the  Scriptures  outgo  him." 

"If  then,  while  in  England,"  said  Dr.  William 
Hague,  the  pastor  of  this  church,  at  its  two  hun- 
dredth anniversar}^  "  Roger  Williams  held  friendly 
communings  with  men  of  such  spirit,  who  were 
publishing  there,  at  the  hazard  of  reputation  and 
property  and  life,  the  same  principles  which  have 
since  attracted  the  statesman's  e)'c  as  he  has  seen 
them  shining  among  the  statutes  of  this  Common- 
wealth, we  need  be  at  no  loss  to  conjecture  where 
he  drew  them.  He  learned  them  from  men  who 
derived  them  from  the  Bible.  The  fact  is  that, 
although  in  New  England  he  seemed  to  stand 
alone,  there  were  many  in  old  England  with  whon 


THE    MUTilER    CHURCH  15 

he   had   common    sjanpathics,    who    cherished    the  - 
same  senthneiits,   who    in   some   instances   suffered 
for  them  the  loss  of  all  things,  clung  to  them  under 
galling  bondage,  and  proclaimed  them  amidst  the 
fires  of  martyrdom." 

Quickly  upon  his  arrival  in  Boston  suspicion  was 
aroused  against  him.  He  was  charged  with  "  Ana- 
baptistry."  He  was  accounted  a  disturber  of  the 
peace.  The  anger  of  "the  Bay  bull,"  which  ani- 
mal, according  to  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter  (Note  8),  seems 
to  have  been  chosen  the  guardian  angel  of  the  new 
world's  destinies,  was  hotly  kindled,  and  Roger 
Williams,  the  advanced  Puritan,  the  Pilgrim  of  the 
Pilgrims,  the  ripening  freeman,  the  progressive 
statesman,  the  new  world  product  of  old  world 
ideas  which  there  had  found  limited  hospitalit\^  in 
whose  mind  the  leaven  of  Anabaptism  had  been 
slowly  working,  was  driven  out,  and,  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  became  the  chief  agent  in  founding 
on  this  spot  the  first  government  in  human  histor\' 
in  which  soul  liberty  was  part  of  its  organic  law. 
On  the  shores  of  the  Narragansett,  in  the  person  of 
the  great  founder  of  this  church  and  this  Common- 
wealth, the  spirit  of  Anabaptism  (for  that  was  what 
it  was)  matured  at  last  in  clearness  of  vision,  in 
definiteness  of  purpose  and  conviction,  and  in  im- 
mortal action,  and  here,  where  you  now  stand,  the 
ultimate  thought  of  the  New  Testament  for  human 
life   and    go\-crnment    upon    earth   was    crystallized 


l6  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

into  fact,  viz.,  a  free  church  endowed  with  spiritual 
hfe  in  a  free  State,  built  upon  human  brotherhood 
and  the  rights  of  the  individual  conscience. 

The  exact  date  of  the  organization  of  this 
mother  church  is  unknown.  The  early  settlers  of 
Providence  were,  for  the  most  part,  religious  men, 
and  had  been  members  of  churches  elsewhere. 
They  undoubtedly  had  worship  from  the  first  in 
humble  form  in  their  humble  homes.  Though  de- 
barred from  the  fellowship  of  the  men  and  women 
who  claimed  a  monopoly  of  the  true  religion  in 
this  new  world,  they  still  believed  in  the  commun- 
ion of  saints.  Meetings  were  held,  we  are  told. 
But  man)'  months,  possibly  two  \-ears,  passed  b\' 
before  an\'  attempt  was  made  to  organize  the  relig- 
ious life  into  church  life.  Religious  opinion  was 
unsettled,  and  probabK'  far  from  harmonious.  They 
had  no  common  creed.  Perhaps  no  man  as  yet 
felt  quite  sure  of  his  own  creed.  This  one  thing 
they  knew — they  were  Separatists.  Time  was 
needed  to  discover  any  permanent  basis  of  agree- 
ment or  any  bond  of  unity.  The  baptism  of  the 
twelve  was  the  first  evidence  of  any  attempt  at 
organized  church  life.  Their  Jordan  of  baptism 
was  their  ecclesiastical  Rubicon,  and  at  the  same 
time  their  pledge  and  sign  of  a  new  fellowship. 
For  the  knowledge  of  this  important  event,  in 
which  their  separatism  culminated  and  their  or- 
ganic union  began,  we  are  indebted   to  Winthrop's 


THE    MOTHER    CllLKCII  I^ 

"Journal,"  under  date  of  March  i6,  1639,  which 
contains  the  earhest  authentic  record  of  it.  It  may 
have  taken  place  a  month  or  a  year  before  the 
record.  There  wa.s  no  as.sociated  pres.s  in  those 
days.  News  moved  at  slow  pace  through  the 
wilderness.  Boston  and  Providence  were  a  thou- 
sand miles  apart.  The>'  had  little  .sympathy  or 
communication  with  each  other.  But  diis  earliest 
record  has  been  accepted  generally  as  the  date  of 
the  origin  of  the  church.  The  probabilities  place 
it  at  least  a  year  before  this,  for,  as  Winthrop  say."--, 
during  the  previous  year,  that  is  between  March, 
1637,  and  March.  1638,  Mr.s.  Scott,  si-ster  of  the 
celebrated  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  had  gone  to  Provi- 
dence to  live.  She,  according  to  Governor  Win- 
throp, was  "  infected  with  Anabaptistry,"  and  led 
Mr.  Williams  "to  make  open  profession  thereof.'' 
His  well-known  kindly  feeling  toward  the  exile 
must  have  prompted  the  suggestion  that  his  grave 
heresy  was  traceable  to  a  cause  outside  of  himself; 
as  if  Roger  Williams  was  not  abundant!}'  competent 
in  himself  to  reach  his  own  conclusions  and  deter- 
mine his  conduct ! 

Who  the  twelve  were  \vho  were  baptized,  w'e 
cannot  be  certain,  except  in  the  case  of  Williams 
and  Holiman.  The  Salem  Church  subsequently 
excommunicated  Roger  Williams  and  wife,  and 
eight  others,  \'iz.,  John  Throgmorton  and  wife, 
Thomas    01ne\'   and   wife,    Stukel}^   Westcott    and 

B 


1 8  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

wife,  Mary  Holiman  and  Widow  Reeves,  all  of 
whom  except  two  were  said  to  have  been  "  rebap- 
tized,"  and  all  of  whom  were  associated  with  Wil- 
liams in  the  settlement  of  Providence.  These 
rebaptized  persons  and  Holiman  make  nine.  Mrs. 
Scott,  who  seems  to  have  been  badly  mfected  with 
Anabaptistry,  was  undoubtedly  also  one  of  the 
number,  and  her  husband,  Richard,  says  that  he 
too  belonged  to  the  company,  which  he  distinctly 
calls  "a  church."  That  baptism  then,  taking  place 
whenever  it  did,  in  1639.  or  1638,  or  1637,  was 
the  beginning  of  our  organized  denominational  life 
in  this  new  world.  (Note  9.)  The  elements  unhin- 
dered crystallized  into  the  divine  form.  The  relig- 
ious life,  having  burst  through  the  iron  walls  of  old 
creeds  and  the  solid  masonry  of  ecclesiastical 
polities  and  governments,  poured  itself,  like  the  life 
of  primitive  Christianity,  into  the  inspired  matrix 
and  mold.  A  church  after  the  New  Testament 
pattern  came  into  being,  born  in  loneliness  and 
exile,  but  born  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  human 
appearance  self-originated  and  without  lineal  de- 
scent or  pedigree,  untouched  by  priestly  hands, 
unanointed  by  apostolic  grace,  and  yet  a  church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  fruit  of  the  divine  seed  of  the 
kingdom,  which  had  been  borne  safely  across  the 
Atlantic  on  the  wind  of  God's  providence  and 
planted  in  the  virgin  soil  of  this  western  conti- 
nent,   the   beginning  of  a  spiritual    harvest  which 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  -  I  9 

should  wave  like  the  golden  fields  of  autumn  and 
spread  from  ocean  to  ocean. 

Of  that  church,  Roger  Williams,  the  leading 
spirit,  who  had  previously  been  invested  with  min- 
isterial functions,  was  the  accepted  teacher  and 
minister.  It  was  a  ver\'  simple  affair.  The  essen- 
tials of  church  life  are  exceedingh-  few  and  easily 
understood.  There  was  no  creed  but  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  no  ritual  but  the  spontaneous  offering  of 
prayer  and  praise,  and  the  familiar  unfolding  of 
the  word  of  truth.  Christ  was  the  center  and  cir- 
cumference of  it  all,  and  the  word  of  Christ  was 
the  supreme  and  only  rule  of  church  order  and 
individual  life.  This  mother  church,  as  you  may 
know,  has  never  seen  fit  to  depart  in  this  respect 
from  the  example  of  the  founders,  which  was  the 
example  of  the  apostles.  It  has  never  adopted 
any  articles  of  faith  or  creedal  test,  or  even  any 
formal  covenant.  The  acceptance  of  Christ  as  a 
personal  Saviour,  and  loving  obedience  to  his  com- 
mands, have  been  the  only  qualifications  for  mem- 
bership. And  yet,  during  a  continuous  life  of 
more  than  two  centuries  and  a  half,  it  has  preserved 
the  essential  doctrines  of  grace  and  the  order  of  the 
gospel  in  substantial  purity  and  in  general  agree- 
ment. 

Roger  Williams  did  not  remain  long  in  its  fellow- 
ship, but  withdrew  and  was  henceforth  known  as  a 
Seeker,  one    of  those    "  who  as  they  looked  over 


20  THE    MOTHER    CHLRCll 

Christendom  and  saw  the  corruptions  which  gen- 
erally prevailed,  concluded  the  divinely  authorized 
ministr\-  of  the  church  had  been  lost,  and  that,  be- 
fore any  could  be  empowered  to  administer  ordi- 
nances, a  new  apostleship  must  be  commissioned." 
(Note  lo.)  He  became  a  consistent  high  church 
Baptist,  and  distrusted  the  validity  of  his  own  ordi- 
nation and  baptism,  as  every  consistent  high- 
churchman  must  do.  He  remained,  however,  in 
sentiment  a  Baptist,  and  declared  to  the  end  of  his 
days  that  the  Baptists  were  nearer  the  New  Testa- 
ment model  than  an)-  other  branch  of  the  visible 
church  of  Christ.  (Note  ii.)  But  the  little 
church  survived  the  withrawal  of  its  minister,  and 
gradually  increased  with  the  slowly  increasing  com- 
munity. Soon  the  names  of  eleven  new  settlers 
appear  upon  the  town  records.  Three  of  them,  Chad 
Brown,  William  Wickenden,  and  Gregory  Dexter, 
became  actively  identified  with  the  church  ;  and 
they,  with  Thomas  Olney,  one  of  the  constituent 
members,  and  Pardon  Tillinghast,  who  was  ad- 
mitted to  citizenship  in  Providence  in  1646,  served, 
in  turn  or  together,  as  its  unpaid  ministers,  for  the 
first  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  its  existence. 
(Note  12.) 

You  do  not  expect  me  to  trace  the  life  of  this, 
our  oldest  church,  through  its  long  and  eventful 
history.  It  is,  however,  interesting  to  remember 
that   for  sixty  years  it  survived  without  a  house  of 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  21 

worship,  public  service  being  held  under  the  trees 
or  in  the  houses  of  the  people  (Note  1 3),  and  that 
its  first  house  was  built  by  its  minister,  Pardon  Til- 
linghast,  at  his  own  expense  (Note  14),  and  was 
situated  on  this  street  (North  Main  Street),  a  little 
farther  north,  being  '  in  the  shape  of  a  hay-cap, 
with  a  fireplace  in  the  middle,  the  smoke  escaping 
from  a  hole  in  the  roof"  (Note  15.)  The  wor- 
shipers must  have  shut  their  eyes,  or  have  given 
wings  to  their  imasrination,  to  have  sung  in  those 
days  such  sentiments  as  these  : 

How  pleasant,  how  divinely  fair, 
O  Lord  of  hosts,  thy  dwellings  are. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  the  first  house 
gave  way  in  1726  to  a  second,  a  little  more  preten- 
tious, it  being  about  forty  feet  square,  which 
served  its  purpose  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  that 
this,  the  third  house,  was  built  in  1775,  when  the 
population  of  Providence  was  but  little  more  than 
four  thousand,  and  was  built,  as  the  record  says, 
"  for  the  public  worship  of  Almighty  God,  and  also 
for  holding  commencement  in."  (Note  16.)  It 
is  interesting  to  remember  that  for  one  hundred 
and  thirty  }'ears  the  ministers  of  this  church,  after 
the  first  pastor,  were  without  special  training,  and 
conscientiously  served  without  compensation,  sup- 
porting themselves  and  their  fatnilies  by  the  labor 
of  their  hands,    believing  and   teachmg  "that    all 


22  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

those  who  took  anything  for  preaching  were  hke 
Simon  Magus  "  (Note  17);  and  to  remember  also 
that  for  the  same  period  this  church  was  virtually  a 
"Six  Principle"  church,  though  there  was  fre- 
quently difference  of  opinion  upon  the  question, 
and  in  two  instances  there  were  defections  by  rea- 
son of  it.  The  first  was  in  1652,  led  by  Thomas 
Olney,  one  of  the  ministers,  because  a  majority  of 
the  church  insisted  upon  the  laying  on  of  hands  as 
prerequisite  to  the  Communion  (Note  1 8)  ;  and  the 
second  was  in  1771,  led  by  the  pastor,  Samuel 
Winsor,  Jr.,  for  the  very  opposite  reason,  because 
the  majority  of  the  church  voted  to  abandon  its 
adherence  to  "a  doubtful  and  unessential  rite." 
(Note  19.)  The  question  was  not  finally  settled 
until  after  the  present  century  had  opened,  when 
Rev.  Stephen  Gano  was  pastor.  It  is  said  that 
Mr.  Winsor  was  also  influenced  in  his  withdrawal 
by  the  introduction  of  church  music  at  that  time, 
saying  that  "  singing  in  worship  was  highly  dis- 
gustful to  him." 

The  coming  of  Rhode  Island  College  and  Presi- 
dent Manning  to  Providence,  in  1770,  brought  an 
intelligent  enlargement  to  the  church,  and  a  pros- 
perity such  as  it  had  never  known.  President 
Manning  was  at  once  chosen  pastor,  upon  the 
retirement  of  Mr.  Winsor.  and  served  in  that  capacity 
for  twenty  years.  From  that  time  the  life  of  the 
church  and  the  life   of  the  university  have  flowed 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  2^ 

side  by  side — rather  have  intermingled — each  giv- 
ing character  and  strength  to  the  other,  as  they 
have  sought  to  enrich  and  ennoble  the  life  of  men 
and  of  the  community. 

To-day  the  mother  church  (Note  20)  looks  back, 
after  an  existence  of  nearl)-  two  hundred  and  sixty 
years,  to  her  birth  in  exile,  to  her  early  struggles 
and  hardships  endured  for  the  sake  of  truth  and 
principle  and  libert}'.  In  addition  to  her  own  roll 
of  honor,  she  recalls  the  names  of  that  eminent 
physician  and  statesman  and  minister,  John  Clarke, 
of  Newport,  and  his  companions  in  tribulation, 
John  Crandall  and  Obadiah  Holmes  ;  of  William 
Witter,  of  Swampscott  ;  of  Thomas  Painter,  of 
Hingham  ;  of  Henry  Dunster,  of  Harvard  College  ; 
of  Thomas  Gould,  Thomas  Osborne,  and  John 
George,  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Boston  ;  of 
William  Screven,  of  Kitter>%  and  of  many  others, 
not  onl\'  in  New  England,  but  out  of  it,  who  were 
counted  worthy  to  suffer  persecution  for  Christ's 
sake  and  the  gospel's.  She  rejoices  that  these  ban- 
ishments, these  fines,  these  imprisonments,  these 
cruel  whippings,  were  not  endured  in  vain  ;  that  the 
long,  weary,  and  bitter  seed-sowing  has  yielded  a 
harvest  of  untold  blessing  to  the  nation  and  the 
world  ;  that  through  the  heroic  fidelit}-  of  the 
fathers  the  children  have  entered  upon  a  glorious 
heritage  of  exalted  privilege  and  unlimited  oppor- 
tunity. 


24  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

To-day  the  mother  church  looks  out  upon  the 
prosperous  city,  with  its  homes  of  comfort  and 
refinement ;  upon  the  State,  with  its  busy  and  suc- 
cessful industries  and  its  world-wide  commerce  ; 
upon  the  land,  with  its  vast  population,  its  inex- 
haustible resources,  its  equality  in  physical  power 
and  moral  influence  with  the  mightiest  nations  of 
the  old  world  ;  and  as  she  sees  her  daughters,  fair 
and  beautiful  as  herself,  numerous  beyond  her 
fondest  expectations,  free,  absolutely  free,  to  wor- 
ship God  according  to  the  dictates  of  an  enlight- 
ened conscience  and  to  do  his  will  on  the  earth, 
equipped  with  endowed  institutions  of  learning, 
with  successful  missionary  organizations,  with  mul- 
titudinous Sunday-schools,  with  an  intelligent  min- 
istiy  and  a  consecrated  laity,  with  the  wisdom  of 
age  and  the  zeal  of  an  awakened  and  irrepressible 
youth,  whose  coming  together  from  }^ear  to  year  is 
as  the  mustering  of  a  victorious  army,  she  exclaims 
in  adoring  gratitude:  "Verily,  verily,  what  hath 
God  wrought!"  And  she  repeats  with  renewed 
confidence  the  predictive  oracle  of  Jehovah  :  The 
Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at  nu'  right  hand, 
until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool.  The 
sceptre  of  th)-  might  Jehovah  shall  stretch  forth  out 
of  Zion,  saying.  Rule  thou  in  the  midst  of  thine 
enemies.  Thy  people  offer  themselves  willingly  in 
the  day  that  thou  warrest,  clad  in  holy  vestments. 
As   the   dew  from    the    womb   of   the   morning  [as 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  25 

numerous  and  beautiful  in  their  holy  consecration] 
is  to  thee  the  dew  of  thy  young  men. 

Note  i.  Professor  William  Gammell,  in  his  "  Life 
of  Roger  Williams,"  says:  "It  would  appear  that 
when  he  fled  from  Salem,  he  made  his  way  through 
the  forest  to  the  lodges  of  the  Pokanokets,  who 
occupied  the  country  north  from  Mount  Hope  as 
far  as  Charles  River.  Ousemaguin  or  Massasoit, 
the  famous  chief  of  this  tribe,  had  known  Mr. 
Williams  when  he  lived  in  Plymouth,  and  had  often 
received  presents  and  tokens  of  kindness  at  his 
hands  ;  and  now  in  the  days  of  his  friendless  exile, 
the  aged  chief  welcomed  him  to  his  cabin  at  Mount 
Hope,  and  extended  to  him  the  protection  and  aid 
he  required.  He  granted  him  a  tract  of  land  on 
the  Seekoik  River,  to  which,  at  the  opening  of 
spring,  he  repaired,  and  where  he  'pitched  and 
began  to  build  and  plant.'  At  this  place,  also,  at 
this  time,  he  was  joined  by  a  number  of  his  friends 
from  Salem."  This  was  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river  at  a  beautiful  bend,  known  as  Manton's  Cove. 
"  But  scarcely  had  the  first  dwelling  been  raised  in 
the  new  settlement,  scarcely  had  the  corn  which 
they  had  planted  appeared  above  the  ground, 
when  he  was  again  disturbed,  and  obliged  to  move 
still  farther  from  Christian  neighbors  and  the  dwel- 
lings of  civilized  men.  '  I  received  a  letter,'  he 
says,  '  from   m>'  ancient   friend,    Mr.  Winslow,  then 


26  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

Governor  of  Plymouth,  professing  his  own  and 
others'  love  and  respect  for  me,  yet  lovingly  advis- 
ing me,  since  I  was  fallen  into  the  edge  of  their 
bounds,  and  they  were  loth  to  displease  the  Bay,  to 
remove  but  to  the  other  side  of  the  water  ;  and 
then,  he  said,  1  had  the  country  before  me,  and 
might  be  as  free  as  themselves,  and  we  should  be 
loving  neighbors  together.'  " 

Note  2.  This  was  Rev.  Hezekiah  Smith,  d.  d., 
first  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Haverhill. 
He  had  gone  to  a  neighboring  town  to  preach. 
The  constable,  a  man  of  diminutive  size,  was 
prompted  to  go,  clothed  with  the  majesty  of  the 
law,  and  warn  him  out  of  the  place.  Mr.  Smith 
was  a  man  of  commanding  presence  and  noble 
bearing.  The  constable  was  greatly  disconcerted, 
and  in  his  confusion  said  :  "  I  warn  you — off  of 
God's  earth."  "  My  good  sir,"  said  the  preacher, 
"where  shall  I  go?"  "Go  an}-where,"  was  the 
reply;  "go  to  the  Isle  of  Shoals."  (Sprague's 
"Annals  of  the  American   Baptist  Pulpit,"  p.  102.) 

Note  3.  "  He  accordingh-  soon  abandoned  the 
fields  which  he  had  planted,  and  the  dwelling  he 
had  begun  to  build,  and  embarked  in  a  canoe  upon 
the  Seekonk  River  in  quest  of  another  spot,  where 
unmolested  he  might  rear  a  home  and  plant  a  sep- 
arate colony.  There  were  five  others,  who  having 
joined  him  at  Seekonk.  bore  him  company  in  the 
excursion  in  \vh*ch  he  thus  went  forth  to  become 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  2"] 

the  founder  of  a  city  and  a  State.  Tradition  has 
handed  down  among  the  sons  of  these  earhest  citi- 
zens of  Rhode  Island  the  course  and  incidents  of 
their  singular  voyage.  As  the  little  bark,  thus 
freighted  with  the  fortunes  of  a  future  State,  was 
borne  along  on  the  waters  of  the  Seekonk,  Wil- 
liams was  greeted  by  some  Indians,  from  the  heights 
that  rise  on  the  western  banks  of  the  stream,  with 
the  friendl}-  salutation,  '  What  cheer,  Netop  ? 
What  cheer?  '  and  first  came  to  land  at  the  spot 
now  called  Slate  Rock"  (Professor  Gammell's 
"  Life  of  Roger  Williams  "). 

Note  4.  The  fact  of  the  immersion  of  Roger 
Williams  and  his  associates  was  never  called  in 
question  until  about  the  year  1880.  At  that  time 
the  question  was  raised  by  Rev.  Heniy  M.  Dexter, 
D.  D.,  a  Congregationalist,  who  made  several  veiy 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  write  Baptist  histor)'-. 
The  question  did  not  arise  from  any  local  facts, 
familiar  or  newly  discovered,  suggesting  doubt  as 
to  the  universally  accepted  belief  It  was  solely  of 
the  nature  of  an  inference  from  the  alleged  later 
introduction  of  immersion  among  the  Baptists  of 
England.  In  1881  Dr.  Dexter  published  what  he 
called  "The  True  Story  of  John  Sm\'th,  the  Se- 
Baptist,"  in  which  he  undertook  to  prove  that  im- 
mersion was  a  new  mode  of  baptism  in  England, 
introduced  about  1641.  Had  he  succeeded  in 
proving   what  he    undertook,    the  inference   would 


28  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

have  by  no  means  followed,  for  Roger  Williams  was 
not  dependent  upon  human  precedent,  and  was 
able  to  mark  out  his  own  course,  as  was  evident  in 
other  matters.  It  is  frequenth'  forgotten  that  im- 
mersion, as  practised  by  the  Baptists,  was  not  a 
novel  idea.  The  primitive  rite  has  never  been 
changed  in  the  Eastern  church  with  its  hundred 
millions  of  adherents,  that  is,  as  to  form,  although 
the  rite  in  ihat  church  is  not  now  dependent  upon 
an  antecedent  personal  faith  in  Christ.  Immersion 
was  also  retained  in  the  Western  church  for  many 
centuries,  and  is  known  to  have  been  practised  in 
England  in  the  sixteenth  and  even  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  although  infant  baptism  had  been 
adopted.  According  to  Dean  Stanley,  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  Edward  VI.  were  immersed  when 
baptized.  Even  so  late  as  1644,  a  clergyman  of 
the  Church  of  England,  named  Blake,  who  was 
rector  at  Tam worth,  said  :  "I  have  been  an  eye- 
witness of  many  infants  dipped,  and  I  know  it  to 
have  been  the  constant  practice  of  many  ministers 
in  their  places  for  many  years  together."  The 
practice  of  immersion  had  not  entirely  ceased  in 
the  English  cathedrals  before  it  was  resumed  under 
their  very  shadow  in  the  form  of  believers'  baptism. 
In  1614  Leonard  Busher,  of  London,  wrote:  "And 
such  as  shall  willingly  and  gladly  receive  the  gospel 
he  hath  commanded  to  be  baptized  in  the  water  ; 
that  is,  dipped  for  dead   in  the  water."      Undoubt- 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  2(J 

edly  the  Baptists  in  England  were  more  concerned 
at  first  about  the  subjects  of  baptism  than  about 
the  rite  itself,  as  was  the  case  on  the  Continent  ; 
but  the  spiritual  prerequisite  having  been  accepted 
as  scriptural,  the  rite  itself  would  be  gradually  con- 
formed to  the  New  Testament  norm.  Prof  Henn- 
C.  Vedder  speaks  carefully  when  he  says  :  "  While 
it  is  certain  that  from  about  1640  immersion  was 
the  uniform  practice  of  Baptists,  there  is  ever)' 
reason  to  believe  that  it  was  at  least  occasionally- 
practised  among  them  from  the  first.  That  the}' 
had  the  idea  we  know,  and  practice  would  naturally 
have  followed  the  idea."  The  Swiss  Anabaptists 
of  the  previous  century  had  been  led  in  the  same 
way.  At  first  rejecting  infant  baptism  and  accept- 
ing believers'  baptism,  they  soon  conscientiously 
sought  to  restore  the  sacred  rite  to  the  primitive 
institution  in  mode  and  symbolic  meaning,  and  were 
immersed  in  large  numbers  on  profession  of  their 
faith  in  Christ. 

It  is  altogether  certain  that  immersion  was  prac- 
tised here  and  there  among  the  General  Baptists 
of  England,  of  whom  there  were  nearly  fortv  con- 
gregations by  1640,  for  a  considerable  number  of 
years  prior  to  that  date.  When  and  by  whom  it 
was  first  introduced  cannot  be  told.  The  intro- 
duction was  probably  gradual,  and  the  fact  that  at 
first  it  was  not  widely  known  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.      When   Edward   Barber  in    1641  declared  that 


30  THE    MOTHKK    CHURCH 

he  was  "  raised  up  to  divulge  this  glorious  truth," 
he  was  undoubtedly  sincere  in  his  statement,  but 
we  know  that  his  statement  was  not  true.  Busher 
had  preceded  him  b\'  twent}'-seven  years. 

In  1633  the  first  Particular  Baptist  church  was 
formed  in  London,  by  certain  persons  who  with- 
drew from  a  Separatist  congregation,  because  they 
had  come  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  believers'  bap- 
tism. According  to  the  so-called  Kiffin  manu- 
script— though  there  is  some  disagreement  in  the 
quotations  from  it — the  members  of  this  church 
being  convinced  that  baptism  "ought  to  be  admin- 
istered b\'  immersion,"  decided  after  "sober  con- 
ference" among  themselves  for  several  months  to 
send  one  of  their  number.  Richard  Blount,  to  Hol- 
land, where  the}-  had  learned  that  there  were  Ana- 
baptists who  practised  immersion,  to  receive  from 
them  scriptural  baptism.  This  the}^  did,  "  because 
though  some  in  this  nation  rejected  the  baptism  of 
infants,  yet  they  had  not  as  they  knew  of,  revived 
the  ancient  custom  of  immersion."  Blount  re- 
turned, accompanied  b\'  John  Batten,  the  teacher 
of  the  Holland  church,  and  the  members  of  the 
London  church  were  thereupon  immersed.  This 
is  represented  as  having  taken  place  in  1641.  But 
it  would  be  by  no  means  safe  to  infer  that  immer- 
sion was  then  for  the  first  time  practised  by  the 
Baptists  of  England.  The  Particular  Baptists 
apparently  at  that  time   "  revived  the  ancient  cus- 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  31 

torn  of  immersion"  among  themselves,  and  undoubt- 
edly from  that  time  immersed  exclusively.  But 
their  ignorance  as  to  what  had  taken  place  before 
and  among  other  Baptists  was  no  more  conclusive 
evidence  of  the  non-existence  of  the  rite  than  the 
ignorance  of  Edward  Barber.  Indeed,  we  have 
the  positive  testimon\-  of  Dr.  hY^atly,  who  writing 
in  1644,  declared  that  near  liis  residence  the  Bap- 
tists had  "defiled  the  rix'ers  with  their  impure 
washings  for  more  than  twenty  N'ears."  This  is  the 
language  of  bitter  prejudice,  and  though  his  feel- 
ings led  him  to  speak  contemptuously  of  the  prac- 
tice of  immersion,  they  would  not  have  been  likely 
to  tempt  him  to  falsify  as  to  the  length  of  time 
during  which  he  had  knowledge  of  its  being  con- 
tinued. Such  testimonv-  seems  conclusive,  and 
dates  the  practice  of  immersion  among  English 
Baptists  earlier  than  1624,  or  within  ten  years  of 
Busher,  and  makes  it  quite  certain  that  he  rendered 
obedience  to  the  truth  which  he  believed  and 
taught. 

Dr.  Dexter  failed  to  prove  the  late  introduction 
of  immersion  among  the  English  Baptists,  and  the 
inference  as  to  Roger  Williams  was  so  unwarranted 
and  unreasonable  and  so  contrary  to  the  testimony 
of  his  contemporaries  and  all  the  known  facts  in 
the  case,  that  it  had  no  influence  whatever,  and 
has  been  regarded  by  most  persons  as  not  worthy 
of  serious  consideration. 


32  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

Pres.  William  H.  Whitsitt,  of  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Theological  Seminary  is,  as  far  as  I  am  aware, 
the  solitary  exception.  Indeed,  he  now  claims  the 
honor  of  having  discovered  the  new  historic  fact  (?) 
and  of  having  suggested  the  inference  as  to  Roger 
Williams'  non-immersion,  and  of  having  called  the 
attention  of  Dr.  Dexter  thereto,  and  complains  of 
the  lack  of  credit.  But  as  he  published  his  opin- 
ions in  a  Pedobaptist  paper  anonymously,  and  at 
about  the  same  time  that  Dr.  Dexter  was  openly 
publishing  the  same  opinions,  and  then  allowed 
fifteen  >'ears  to  go  by  before  he  acknowledged  the 
paternity  of  the  anonymous  articles,  the  claim  and 
the  complaint  seem  somewhat  out  of  place.  In 
an  article  on  the  Baptists  published  in  the  recent 
edition  of  Johnson's  "New  Universal  Cyclopaedia," 
Professor  Whitsitt  says  of  the  baptism  of  Roger 
Williams:  "The  ceremony  was  most  likely  per- 
formed by  sprinkling  ;  the  Baptists  of  P^ngland  had 
not  yet  adopted  immersion,  and  there  is  no  reason 
which  renders  it  probable  that  W^illiams  was  in  ad- 
vance of  them  in  that  regard."  It  is  exceedingly 
unfortunate  that  an  opinion  which  is  merely  an 
individual  conjecture  should  have  been  allowed  in 
a  popular  cyclopaedia  to  appear  in  the  place  of 
established  and  accredited  history,  and  in  the  face 
of  it.  The  contemporaneous  and  local  testimony  as 
to  the  Providence  baptism  has  always  been  re- 
garded as  abundant  and  convincing. 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  33 

Richard  Scott  and  William  Coddington,  both 
contemporaries  of  Williams,  one  a  friend  and  fel- 
low church-member,  and  the  other  an  enemy, 
speak  of  him  in  such  a  way  as  to  lea\'e  no  possible 
doubt  that  his  baptism  was  immersion.  Codding- 
ton says  :  "I  have  known  him  about  fifty  years,  a 
mere  weathercock,  constant  only  in  inconstancy.  .  . 
One  time  for  water  baptism  [Coddington  had 
become  a  Quaker  when  he  wrote  this],  men  and 
women  must  be  plunged  into  the  water,  and  then 
threw  it  all  down  again."  This  refers  to  his  brief  con- 
nection with  the  Baptist  church,  and  his  withdrawal 
because  he  thought  the  true  baptism  had  been  lost 
by  reason  of  the  break  in  the  line  of  succession. 
The  language  can  have  no  application  to  any  other 
period  or  act  in  the  life  of  Williams.  Professor 
Albert  H.  Newman,  in  a  review  of  Dr.  H.  M. 
Dexter's  "John  Smyth,  the  Se-Baptist,"  pub- 
lished in  The  Examiner  in  March,  1882,  was 
inclined  to  accept  the  inference  that  Williams' 
baptism  was  sprinking.  This  he  did,  as  he  sub- 
sequently confessed  (ii>rt';/////rr.  May,  1896),  "some- 
what rashly,"  and  "  without  having  specially  inves- 
tigated the  question."  A  thorough  study  of  the 
evidence  pro  and  con  the  immersion  theor)%  com- 
pelled him  to  retract  his  hastily  accepted  view  and 
to  acknowledge  the  convincing  force  of  Codding- 
ton's  testimony.  He  also  said,  "  I  attach  little 
importance  to  the  argument  drawn  from  the  fact 


34  i'llli    MOTllliK    CHURCH 

that  the  EngHsh  Baptists  had  not  as  yet  reached 
the  conviction  that  immersion  alone  is  true  bap- 
tism. WilHams  was  quite  as  Hkely  as  any  member 
of  the  Southwark  (London)  congregation  to  come 
to  an  independent  conclusion  on  a  point  of  this 
kind,  and  was  quite  as  likely  to  act  promptly  on 
his  convictions.  Restraining  influences  which  may 
have  delayed  action  for  a  number  of  years  in  Lon- 
don, were  wholly  wanting  in  Providence.  That 
primitive  baptism  was  immersion  had  been  freely 
admitted  by  leading  reformers,  and  immersion  was 
the  form  prescribed  in  the  English  Prayer  Book. 
A  highly  educated  man  like  Williams  did  not  need 
the  example  of  English  Baptists  in  a  matter  of  this 
kind."  Dr.  Newman  added  that  when  he  had 
reached  this  conclusion  after  a  thorough  investiga- 
tion, he  submitted  it  to  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter,  and 
found  to  his  great  surprise  that  he  too  had  been 
led  to  adopt  the  same  view.  "His  answer  was 
entirely  in  accord  with  my  own  conclusion.  He 
expressed  the  opinion  that  in  the  absence  of  con- 
temporary evidence  against  immersion,  Codding- 
ton's  statement  must  be  accepted  as  probably 
correct." 

When  immersion  is  spoken  of  in  English  con- 
troversial publications,  bearing  date  of  1641  and 
1642,  as  a  "new  baptism,"  and  one  "lately  intro- 
duced," these  terms  must  not  be  interpreted  too 
strictly  or  narrowly.      If  it  had  been  administered 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  35 

to  believers  in  Christ  for  a  period  of  ten  years,  or 
even  for  twenty-five  years,  the  terms  would  have 
been  accurate.  It  is  abundant!}'  evident  that  for 
several  years  in  England  much  and  wide  thought 
had  been  given  to  the  form  of  baptism  as  well  as 
to  the  proper  candidates.  The  American  colonists 
must  all  have  been  aware  of  the  discussion  that 
was  going  on,  and  of  the  changing  views,  at  least 
in  some  instances.  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy  (subse- 
quently president  of  Harvard  College)  arrived  at 
Ph-mouth  from  England  in  1638,  and  was  desired 
as  assistant  to  the  pastor  of  the  church  there. 
Governor  Bradford  says  of  him  :  "  But  there  fell 
out  some  difference  about  baptizing,  he  holding  it 
ought  to  be  by  dipping,  and  putting  the  whole 
body  under  water,  and  that  sprinkling  was  un- 
lawful." The  church  was  willing  that  he  should 
"practice  as  he  was  persuaded,"  if  those  who 
wished  to  be  "otherwise  baptized"  could  have  the 
privilege.  To  this  Mr.  Chauncy  could  not  con- 
scientiously agree,  and  became  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Scituate,  where  it  is  said  he  found  many  mem- 
bers who  "held  to  immersion,  some  to  adult  im- 
mersion only,  and  some  to  immersion  of  infants  as 
well  as  adults."  Felt  .says  of  him,  July  7,  1642  : 
"Chauncy,  at  Scituate,  still  adheres  to  his  practice 
of  immersion.  He  had  baptized  two  of  his  children 
in  this  way."  If  there  were  no  adult  immersions 
at  Scituate  at  that  early  date   it  must  have  been 


36  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

because  there  were  no  candidates,  and  certainly 
not  because  of  any  lack  of  faith  in  the  scriptural- 
ness  of  the  rite,  or  reluctance  of  disposition.  Well 
has  Dr.  H.  S.  Burrage  asked  :  "  How  came  Mr. 
Chauncy  to  hold  such  an  opinion,  if  immersion 
was  unknown  among  the  Baptists  of  England  until 
1641  ?  And  certainly  if  Mr.  Chauncy,  in  1638, 
rejected  sprinkling  and  insisted  upon  immersion  as 
scriptural  baptism,  why  may  not  Roger  Williams 
and  his  associates  at  Providence  have  done  the 
same  in  the  following  [or  possibly  the  preceding] 
year?"  With  this  condition  of  religious  thought 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  why  should  it  be 
thought  a  thing  incredible  or  improbable  that  the 
great  Rhode  Island  leader,  the  independent  thinker, 
the  conscientious  actor,  the  courageous  pioneer, 
should  have  acted  out  an  interpretation  and  con- 
viction which  he  is  known  to  have  held  ?  Any  in- 
ference from  the  supposed  or  actual  tardiness  of 
English  Baptists  to  follow  their  convictions  as  to 
the  non-immersion  of  Roger  W^illiams,  is  surely  a 
palpable  non  scqiiitnr,  and  in  the  face  of  explicit 
testimony,  like  that  of  Coddington,  cannot  be  en- 
tertained by  reasonable  historians. 

Strong  confirmatoiy  evidence  that  the  Providence 
baptism  was  immersion,  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
when  John  Clarke  and  Mark  Lucar  are  reported  as 
first  administering  baptism,  there  is  no  intimation 
of  any  variance   between   their  practice   and   the 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  3/ 

practice  that  had  been  instituted  in  Providence. 
Had  the  Newport  baptism  been  different  from  the 
Providence  baptism,  it  is  incredible  that  some 
record  of  the  fact  should  not  have  been  made. 
The  Providence  church  has  never  for  an  instant 
questioned  the  immersion  of  its  great  founder. 
After  the  withdrawal  of  Williams  for  the  reasons 
which  influenced  him  to  take  that  step,  there  arose 
a  solicitude  in  the  church  as  to  the  validity  of  the 
baptism  originated  among  themselves,  not  as  to  its 
mode  ;  but  the  project  of  sending  a  representativ^e 
to  the  old  world  to  receive  what  could  be  regarded 
as  apostolic  baptism  by  reason  of  a  supposed  un- 
broken succession,  was  soon  wisely  abandoned,  and 
from  that  day  to  this  the  church  has  remained  con- 
tent with  the  baptism  which  it  received  from 
Williams. 

It  should  be  added,  moreover,  that  if  Roger 
Williams  and  his  companions  were  not  immersed 
when  the}'  were  "baptized,"  we  have  not  the 
slightest  intimation  as  to  the  time  when  the  change 
was  brought  about,  and  immersion  was  introduced 
into  the  Baptist  church  in  Providence.  A  belief, 
therefore,  against  which  not  a  suspicion  was  raised 
for  two  hundred  and  forty  years,  and  against  which 
no  evidence  whatever  has  been  discovered,  but  in 
support  of  which  there  is  the  most  explicit  tes- 
timony contemporaneous  with  the  act  itself,  and  on 
which    rests   the    unbroken   history  of  an   existing 


38  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

church,  is  not  likely  to  be  puffed  away  by  the  rash 
inference  of  a  fertile  imagination.  One  might  as 
reasonably  infer  that  Roger  Williams  and  Ezekiel 
Holiman  have  onl)'  a  mythical  existence,  or  that  in 
the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  centur}-  there  was 
not  water  sufficient  in  Narragansett  Ba\-  to  permit 
the  performance  of  the  rite  of  baptism.  Such  de- 
structive historical  criticism  is  likely  to  leave  noth- 
ing back  of  the  memory  of  living  men  that  can  be 
looked  upon  as  established  and  trustworthy,  and 
no  man  can  be  quite  sure  of  being  left  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  what  he  has  seen  with  his  own 
eyes  and  heard  with  his  own  ears.  It  is  prepos- 
terous at  this  late  day  for  a  man  to  rise  up  and 
deny,  simply  on  his  own  authority,  the  immersion 
of  Roger  Williams,  and  call  for  proof  of  a  fact  so 
thoroughly  established,  and  for  two  and  a  half  cen- 
turies unquestioned. 

Such  a  student  of  history  is  made  conspicuous 
by  reason  of  his  solitariness.  The  onus  probandi 
clearly  rests  upon  him  who  says  that  Williams  and 
his  companions  were  "  most  likely  sprinkled."  Such 
an  assertion  should  be  made  only  on  the  most  in- 
dubitable evidence. 

Note'  5.  There  are  preserved  in  the  museum 
of  Brown  University  the  roots  of  an  apple  tree 
believed  to  have  been  nourished^  by  the  body  of 
Mr.  Williams,  and  also  nails  from  his  coffin  and 
that  of  his  wife. 


I 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  39 

Note  6.  Deed  of  Roger  Williams  to  his  asso- 
ciates in  1638  (R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  I.,  22). 

Note  7.  The  following  instrument  stands  with- 
out date  in  the  earliest  records  of  the  colon)^  and 
is  believed  to  be  the  first  form  of  civil  government 
adopted  by  the  inhabitants  : 

"  We  whose  names  are  here  underwritten,  being 
desirous  to  inhabit  in  the  town  of  Providence,  do 
promise  to  submit  ourselves,  in  active  or  passive 
obedience,  to  all  such  orders  or  agreements  as 
shall  be  made  for  public  good  of  the  body  in  an 
orderly  wa}^  by  the  major  consent  of  the  present 
inhabitants,  masters  of  families,  incorporated 
together  into  a  township,  and  such  others  as  they 
shall  admit  into  the  same,  only  in  civil  things." 

Note  8.   See  "As  to  Roger  Williams,"  p.  119. 

Note  9.  "This  has  been  generally  regarded  as  the 
establishment  of  the  first  Baptist  church  in  America." 
(See  Straus'  "  Roger  Williams,"  p.  107.) 

Note  10.  Rev.  John  Stanford,  acting  pastor  of 
the  church  from  January,  1788,  to  September, 
1789,  says  in  "Baptist  Annual  Register,"  p  796  : 
"  Mr.  Williams  held  his  pastoral  office  about  four 
years,  and  then  resigned  the  same  to  Mr.  Brown 
and  Mr.  Wickenden,  and  went  to  England  to 
solicit  the  first  charter."  But  Governor  Winthrop 
and  Richard  Scott  say  his  connection  continued 
only  three  or  four  months.  Their  testimony  is 
probably  to  be  accepted. 


40  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

Note  ii.  In  a  letter  to  Governor  Winthrop, 
under  date  of  Nov.  lo,  1649,  he  says:  "I  believe 
their  practice  comes  nearer  the  first  practice  of  our 
great  founder,  Jesus  Christ,  than  other  practices  of 
religion  do."  In  a  reply  to  George  Fox  in  1672, 
only  eleven  years  before  his  death,  he  gives  expres- 
sion to  his  unchanged  faith  in  the  spiritual  nature 
of  a  church,  and  the  spiritual  qualifications  for  its 
membership  and  ordinances.  "  After  all  my  search 
and  examinations  and  considerations,  I  do  profess 
to  believe  that  some  come  nearer  to  the  first  prim- 
itive churches  and  the  institutions  and  appoint- 
ments of  Jesus  Christ  than  others  ;  as  in  many 
respects,  so  in  that  gallant  and  heavenly  and  fun- 
damental principle  of  the  true  matter  of  a  Chris- 
tian congregation,  flock,  or  society,  namely,  actual 
believers,  true  disciples  and  converts,  living  stones, 
such  as  can  give  some  account  how  the  grace  of 
God  hath  appeared  unto  them."  In  1645  ^^^  pub- 
lished in  London  a  treatise  entitled  "Christenings 
Make  not  Christians."  His  views  were  radical  at 
that  time,  and  thoroughly  scriptural,  as  Baptists 
believe. 

Note  12.  "It  is  very  difficult  to  determine  their 
terms  of  service,  or  how  far  each  was  recognized  as 
pastor.  Two  or  three  seem  to  have  been  elders  at 
the  same  time"  ("History  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  in  Providence,  1639— 1877,"  prepared  by 
Rev.  S.  L.  Caldwell,  d.  d.,  and  Prof  William  Gam- 


THE    MOTHER    CHUKCH  4I 

mell).  Rev.  C.  E,  Barrows,  d.  d.,  in  the  "  History 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Newport,"  says  that 
that  church  had  elders  "  besides  a  pastor,"  and  gives 
the  names  of  three.  It  is,  however,  probable,  if 
not  certain,  that  Dr.  Barrows  was  misled  by  the 
record  of  the  election  of  "three  elders"  to  be 
assistants  to  William  Coddington  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  new  colon}-.  They  were  not  called 
elders  of  the  church.  Their  office  seems  to  have 
been  purely  a  civil  one.  But  in  Providence  there 
was  undoubtedly  a  plurality  of  elders  in  the 
church,  and  the  descendants  of  each  elder  have 
claimed  that  their  ancestor  stood  next  to  Roger 
Williams  in  the  pastorate.  The  office  could  not 
have  involved  much  labor  or  any  cessation  from 
secular  employment.  They  shared  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  spiritual  oversight  of  the  little  church. 
In  the  Second  Baptist  Church  of  Newport,  how- 
ever, as  late  as  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  there  was  a  triple  pastorate.  James 
Clarke,  a  nephew  of  Dr.  John  Clarke,  was  ordained 
as  pastor  in  1 700,  at  the  age  of  fifty-one,  he  hav- 
ing been  previously  a  cooper  by  trade.  In  1704 
Daniel  Wightman  was  ordained  as  associate  pastor 
with  Mr.  Clarke,  and  in  1729  Rev.  John  Comer, 
having  become  a  Six  Principle  Baptist,  resigned  the 
pastorate  of  the  First  Church,  and  became  also 
associate  pastor  of  the  Second  Church.  He  served, 
however,  but  two  years.      They  were  all  pastors  at 


43  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

the  same  time.  It  was  in  that  year  (1729)  that 
Dean  Berkeley  described  the  divided  reHgious  con- 
dition of  Newport  in  these  words  :  "  Here  are  four 
sorts  of  Anabaptists,  besides  Presbyterians,  Quakers, 
Independents,  and  many  of  no  profession.  Not- 
withstanding so  many  differences,  here  are  fewer 
quarrels  about  religion  than  elsewhere,  the  people 
living  peaceably  with  their  neighbors  of  whatever 
persuasion.  The  town  of  Newport  contains  about 
six  thousand  souls,  and  is  the  most  thriving  in  all 
America  for  bigness." 

Note  13.  "For  over  sixty  years  religion-  was 
here,  the  church  was  here,  but  with  no  house  of  its 
own.  It  found  such  shelter  as  it  could  in  open 
spaces  and  under  trees,  when  skies  were  fair  ;  in 
such  houses  as  could  give  it  hospitality,  when  driven 
in  by  the  weather.  There  was  no  public  building 
in  the  town  even  for  civil  purposes.  After  Philip's 
War,  in  June,  1676,  the  annual  town  meeting  was 
held  '  before  Thomas  Field's  house,  under  a  tree 
by  the  waterside.'  "  ("Discourse  in  the  First  Bap- 
tist Meeting  House  on  the  Ninetieth  Anniversary  of 
its  Dedication,  May  28,  1865,"  by  the  pastor,  Rev. 
S.  L.  Caldwell,   d.  d.) 

Note  14.  Not  only  did  he  serve  the  church 
without  charge,  but  in  a  noble  and  generous  spirit, 
in  the  year  1 700,  he  built  a  meeting-house  for  it 
on  a  lot  near  the  corner  of  North  Main  and  Smith 
Streets.      "In    171 1,  seven  years   before  his  death, 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  43 

he   made   a   free    gift  of  a  deed  of  the  house  and 
land  to  the  church."      (Discourse  by  Dr.  Caldwell.) 

Note  15.  Knowles'  "Life  of  Roger  Williams," 
p.  175. 

Note  16.  This  house  was  dedicated  on  May  28, 
1775,  President  James  Manning  preaching  the  ser- 
mon on  the  occasion.  It  is  modeled  from  a  draw- 
ing made  for  the  Church  of  St.  Martin's-in-the 
Fields,  near  Charing  Cross,  London,  contained  in 
Gibbs'  "  Designs  of  Buildings  and  Ornaments." 
James  Gibbs  was  a  pupil  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren. 
The  cost  of  land  and  building  was  a  little  ov^er 
^7,000,  "lawful  money,"  or  about  $35,000.  Of 
this  amount  ;^2,ooo  was  raised  by  lottery',  a  bill 
having  been  granted  by  the  General  Assembly  at 
the  June  session,   1774. 

The  steeple  was  furnished  with  a  bell  weighing 
two  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifteen  pounds,  cast 
in   London,  and  bearing  this  quaint  inscription  : 

For  freedom  of  conscience  the  town  was  first  planted, 
Persuasion,  not  force,  was  used  by  the  people  : 

This  church  is  the  eldest  and  has  not  recanted, 
Enjoying  and  granting  bell,  temple,  and  steeple. 

In  England  the  chapels  of  dissenters  were  not 
allowed  to  have  either  spire  or  bell.  The  bell  was 
broken  in  ringing,  and  recast  in  1787.  It  then  re- 
ceived a  new  inscription,  viz.  :  "This  church  was 
formed  a.  d.   1639,  the  first  in   the  State,  and  the 


44  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

oldest  of  the  Baptists  in  America."  It  was  again 
broken  and  recast  in  March,  1 844,  and  a  third  time 
in  September  of  the  same  year.  Its  present  in- 
scription is  as  follows  :  "  This  church  was  founded 
in  1639  by  Roger  Williams,  its  first  pastor,  and  the 
first  asserter  of  liberty  of  conscience.  It  was  the 
first  church  in  R.  I.,  and  the  first  Baptist  church  in 
America."  The  bell  is  still  rung  daily  at  sunrise, 
at  noon,  and  at  9  P.  m. 

The  building  is  eighty  feet  square,  with  projec- 
tions in  front  and  in  the  rear,  and  has  entrances  on 
the  four  sides.  At  first  the  pews  were  square,  and 
the  two  principal  aisles  crossed  each  other  at  right 
angles  in  the  center  of  the  house.  In  1792  the 
beautiful  crystal  chandelier,  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Hope 
Ives,  the  daughter  of  Nicholas  Brown,  was  placed 
in  the  audience  room.  In  1832  the  sounding- 
board  was  removed,  the  pulpit  lowered,  and  the  top 
galler}^  at  the  west  end,  which  was  devoted  to  the 
use  of  colored  people,  was  taken  away  and  an 
organ  introduced.  The  interior  of  the  house  has 
been  several  times  renovated,  modernized,  and  better 
fitted  for  the  needs  of  the  church,  but  the  archi- 
tectural proportions  remain  undisturbed.  Nearly 
four  generations  have  worshiped  under  its  roof 
It  stands  as  a  beautiful  specimen  of  the  church 
architecture  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  highly 
prized  landmark  in  the  city,  and  the  pride  of  those 
who  make  it  their  religious  home.      (See  "Address 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  45 

by  Hon.  Samuel  Greene  Arnold  at  the  One  Hun- 
dredth Anniversary  of  the  Opening  of  the  Meeting 
House,"  dehvered  May  28,    1875.) 

Note  17.  Governor  Jenckes,  writing  in  1730, 
says,  however,  of  Pardon  TilHnghast :  "  He  did  sev- 
eral times  in  his  teaching  declare  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  a  church  to  contribute  toward  the  main- 
tenance of  their  elders,  who  labored  in  the  word 
and  doctrine  of  Christ  ;  and  although,  for  his  part, 
he  would  take  nothing,  yet  it  remained  the  church's 
duty  to  be  performed  to  such  as  might  succeed 
him"  (Backus,  Vol.  H.,  p.   114). 

Note  18.  There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as 
to  the  original  attitude  of  the  church  in  reference 
to  the  practice  of  laying  on  of  hands.  The  state- 
ment of  Morgan  Edwards,  made  in  1770,  is  prob- 
ably correct  :  "At  first  laying  on  of  hands  was  held 
in  a  lax  manner,  so  that  they  who  had  no  faith  in 
the  rite  were  received  without  it,  and  such  (saith 
Jo'seph  Jenks)  was  the  opinion  of  the  Baptists  in 
the  first  constitution  of  their  churches  throughout 
this  colony."  Again  he  says:  "Some  divisions 
have  taken  place  in  this  church.  The  first  was 
about  the  year  1654,  on  account  of  laying  on  of 
hands.  Some  were  for  banishing  it  entirely,  among 
which  Rev.  Thomas  Olney  was  the  chief,  who  with 
a  few  more  withdrew  and  formed  themselves  into  a 
distinct  church,  distinguished  by  the  name  of  Five 
Point  Baptists,   and  the  first   of    the   name   in  the 


4-6  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

province.  It  continued  in  being  to  171  5,  when  Mr. 
Olney  resigned  the  care  of  it,  and  soon  after  it 
ceased  to  exist."  [This  must  have  been  Thomas 
Olney,  Jr.,  who  was  also  an  elder,  and  died  in 
1722.      The  father  died  in  1682.] 

Mr.  Edwards  followed  Stephen  Hopkins,  Gov- 
ernor of  Rhode  Island  and  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  Rev.  John  Callender,  the  Newport 
pastor,  who  delivered  his  famous  "  Historical  Dis- 
course "  in  1738,  and  many  others.  This  view  has 
been  generally  accepted.  Rev.  John  Comer,  also 
a  Newport  pastor,  in  a  manuscript  diary  written 
about  1730',  appears  to  have  regarded  the  Six 
Principle  church,  under  Mr.  Brown,  Mr.  Wicken- 
den,  and  Mr.  Dexter,  as  the  seceding  church.  Cal- 
lender, Avho  has  been  called  "a  man  of  wonderful 
attainments  and  accuracy,"  and  whose  "  Historical 
Discourse"  was  preached  eight  years  later  than 
Comer,  reviewing  the  whole  matter,  took  the  oppo- 
site view.  Backus  (Vol.  I.,  p.  405)  speaks  of 
"  those  who  parted  from  their  brethren  about  the 
year  1653,  under  the  leading  of  Elder  Wicken- 
den,"  and  seems  to  coincide  with  Mr.  Comer, 
though  the  language  probably  means  simply  that 
there  was  a  separation.  He  does  not  hesitate  to 
call  the  first  church  in  Providence  "The  first  Bap- 
tist church  in  America,"  and  speaks  of  the  Olney 

'  This  diary  was  published  in  1894  t>y  the  American  Baptist  Pub- 
lication Society. 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  47 

faction  not  as  the  church,  but  as  "a  part  of  the 
church."  Rev.  Samuel  Adlam,  in  a  pamphlet  which 
appeared  in  1850,  followed  Mr.  Comer.  He  was 
pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  Newport  when  he 
published  his  views. 

Rev.  Thomas  Armitage,  d.  d.  ("  Histor>^  of  Bap- 
tists," p.  667),  says  : 

It  seems  clear  from  the  statements  of  the  most  reliable 
historians  that  the  first  warm  contention  on  the  subject 
at  Providence  was  between  Wickenden  and  Olney,  as  to 
whether  the  point  of  being  "under  hands"  should  be  made 
a  test  of  fellowship;  that  Olney  went  out,  that  Wickenden 
and  Brown  remained  with  the  old  church,  and  that  in  that 
body,  according  to  Callender,  laying  on  of  hands  prevailed, 
and  held  its  own  till  the  days  of  Manning,  when  it  ceased 
to  be  a  test  of  membership,  and  gradually  died  out. 

Rev.  H.  S.  BuiTage,  d.  d.,  in  "Histor}^  of  Bap- 
tists in  New  England,"  p.  28,  takes  the  same  view. 
He  says  :  "  Mr.  Olney's  party  withdrew  from  the 
church,  and  maintained  a  separate  existence  until 
about  I  718. 

Rev.  S.  L.  Caldwell,  d.  d..  in  a  discourse  preached 
at  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
church  (1889),  says  : 

The  fanciful  theory  that  in  this  movement  of  Olney  the 
historic  continuity  of  the  church  was  disrupted,  and  we  lost 
our  antiquity  and  our  primacy,  goes  to  pieces  on  the  facts. 
Just  as  well  say  the  church  lost  its  previous  history,  when 
in  1 77 1  Winsor  and  his  associates  went  out  for  a  reason  just 


4^  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

opposite  to  that  which  led  out  Ohiey  and  his  dissenters. 
In  both  cases  the  church  lived  and  continued  and  survived 
the  schism. 

There  has  been  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  fact  of  a  division  in  the  church  in  1652,  1653, 
or  1654,  or  as  to  the  cause  of  the  division.  The 
main  question  to  be  answered  is,  what  was  the  pre- 
vaiHng  sentiment  in  the  church,  before  the  division, 
on  the  point  in  discussion  ?  The  answer  to  that 
will  enable  us  to  determine  which  part  of  the  church 
seceded.  A  second  question,  the  answer  to  which 
cannot  be  doubtful  is,  would  a  division  of  the  church, 
in  such  circumstances  and  on  such  grounds,  in  any 
way  inhibit  the  surviving  part  of  the  church  from 
claiming  to  be  the  church,  and  dating  its  origin  at 
the  beginning  of  the  original  church  ? 

Mr.  Comer's  language,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  Armi- 
tage,  is  as  follows  :  "  Mr.  William  Vaughn  [a  mem- 
ber of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Newport],  finding 
a  number  of  Baptists  in  the  town  of  Providence, 
lately  joined  together  in  special  church  covenant, 
in  the  faith  and  practice,  under  the  inspection  of 
Mr.  Wiggington  [Wickenden],  being  heretofore 
members  of  the  church  under  Mr.  Thomas  Olney 
of  that  town,  he,  that  is,  Mr.  William  Vaughn,  went 
thither  in  the  month  of  October,  1652,  and  sub- 
mitted thereto  (the  laying  on  of  hands),  whereupon 
he  returned  to  Newport,  accompanied  with  Mr. 
William   Wiggington    and    Mr.   Gregory   Dexter." 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  49 

This  act  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Second  Baptist 
Church  in  Newport,  in  1656.  Mr.  Comer's  record 
was  made  more  than  seventy-five  years  after  the 
event.  The  announcement  that  a  part  of  the 
church  in  Providence,  which  was  said  indiscrimi- 
nately to  be  under  the  care  of  Olney  or  Wicken- 
den,  Dexter  or  Brown,  had  openly  put  itself  on 
Six  Principle  ground,  would  have  been  a  sufficient 
cause  for  the  visit  of  Mr.  Vaughn,  who  had  been 
led  to  sympathize  with  that  view.  Mr.  Comer  in- 
ferred that  the  Wickenden  church  was  the  seceding 
church,  and  hence  was  unable  rightfully  to  claim 
an  origin  prior  to  the  separation. 

The  only  advocates  of  this  view  in  the  North 
have  been  two  or  three  pastors  of  the  First  Church 
in  Newport,  the  priority  of  which  would  be  secured 
by  its  adoption.  Prof  Henry  C.  Vedder  ("  A  Short 
History  of  the  Baptists,"  p.  155)  thinks  the  ques- 
tion a  difficult  one  to  settle.  He  says  "Whether 
the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Providence  is  the  lineal 
successor  of  this  church  founded  by  Roger  Wil- 
liams is  a  difficult  historical  question,  about  which 
a  positive  opinion  should  be  expressed  with  diffi- 
dence. Tradition  maintains  that  the  line  of  succes- 
sion has  been  unbroken  ;  but  the  records  to  prove 
this  are  lacking."  All  other  Baptist  historians 
either  declare  the  Olney  party  to  be  the  seceding 
church,  or  accepting  the  language  of  Mr.  Comer, 
do  not  see  that  it  affects  at  all  the  question  of  the 

D 


50  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

priority  of  the  existing  First  Church  in  Providence. 
It  is  difificLilt  to  say  how  much  the  landmarker 
spirit  among  the  Southern  Baptists,  which  would 
deny  the  vahdity  of  the  baptism  of  Roger  Wil- 
hams,  and  of  course  that  of  his  successors,  because 
he  was  baptized  by  an  unbaptized  person,  has  had 
to  do  with  the  disposition  in  certain  quarters  of  late 
to  give  the  priority  to  the  Newport  church. 

In  reference  to  the  attitude  of  the  church  prior 
to  the  division,  it  ma\'  be  said  that  there  is  positive 
evidence  from  his  writings  that  Roger  Williams  held 
to  the  laying  on  of  hands  as  a  fitting  sequel  to 
baptism  and  a  rite  of  equal  importance  and  sacred- 
ness.  His  view  found  expression  in  his  "  Bloody 
Tenet,"  "Bloody  Tenet,  yet  More  Bloody,"  and 
"  Hireling  Ministry."  These  works  were  published 
between  1643  and  1652,  all  of  them  before  the 
division  in  the  church  took  place.  How  early 
Roger  Williams  adopted  the  view  it  is  impossible 
to  determine,  probably  some  years  before  1643. 
Knight,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Six  Principle  Bap- 
tists," calls  him  "the  parent  and  founder"  of  that 
denomination.  This  is  unquestionably  an  over- 
statement, for  it  is  not  known  that  he  was  active  in 
spreading  the  rite  and  winning  adherents  to  it. 
The  principal  men,  however,  associated  with  him, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Olney,  held  the  same 
view.  When  the  schism  occurred,  Brown,  Wick- 
enden,  and  Dexter  were  all  opposed  to  Olney,  and 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  5I 

undoubtedly  the  majorit)-  of  the  church  were  with 
them,  and  would  not  naturally  be  called  the  seced- 
ing party.  Comer's  statement,  which  undoubtedly 
was  based  upon  hearsay  testimony,  does  not  seem 
to  be  in  harmony  with  the  known  attitude  of  the 
original  church. 

Pardon  Tillinghast,  who  was  admitted  to  citizen- 
ship in  Providence  in  1646,  at  least  six  years  before 
the  defection  occurred,  and  who  was  connected 
with  the  church  as  private  member  or  pastor  for 
seventy-two  years,  until  his  death  in  171 8,  must 
have  been  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  character 
of  the  church  from  the  beginning.  In  his  deed  to 
the  church,  in  171 1,  of  the  meeting-house  which  he 
had  built  at  his  own  expense  (Record  of  Deeds, 
Vol.  XII.,  p.  260),  the  language  reads,  "  My  house, 
called  the  Baptist  meeting-house."  There  was  no 
other  meeting-house,  and  as  we  know,  there  had 
been  no  other.  The  church  worshiping  in  it  had 
evidently  maintained  its  original  name  and  primacy 
as  the  Baptist  church.  Its  doctrinal  position  is 
made  known  by  the  following  memorandum,  which 
appears  at  the  end  of  the  deed. 

Memorandum.  Before  the  engrossing  hereof  I  do  de- 
clare, that  whereas  it  is  above  mentioned  to  wit,  "to  the 
church  and  their  successors  in  the  same  faith  and  order," 
I  do  intend  by  the  words  "  same  faith  and  order,"  such  as 
do  truly  believe  and  practice  the  six  principles  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ  mentioned   Heb.    6  :  2,    such  as  after  their 


52  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

manifestation  of  repentance  and  faith,  are  baptized  in  water 
and  have  hands  laid  on  them.      Signed 

Pardon  Tillinghast, 
mark  of 
Li  1)1  A  L.   Tillinghast. 

The  practice  of  laying  on  of  hands  was  intro- 
duced among  the  Baptists  of  England  and  Wales 
about  the  year  1646,  according  to  Evans'  "Early 
English  Baptists,"  and  prevailed  quite  extensively. 
It  was  the  result  of  a  conscientious  re-examination 
of  the  New  Testament  to  ascertain  the  constitution 
of  the  primitive  church  and  the  requirements  of 
the  gospel.  In  their  extreme  conscientiousness 
and  care  to  omit  nothing  required,  some  of  them 
went  so  far  as  to  practise  feet-washing.  Knight 
says:  "  When  professors  found  themselves  at  liberty, 
during  the  confusions  caused  by  the  civil  wars,  to 
read  the  Scriptures  and  act  for  themselves,  several 
of  the  General  Baptists,  as  well  as  others,  esteem- 
ing the  example  and  precepts  of  Christ  to  be  bind- 
ing on  all  his  followers,  conscientiously  practised 
the  washing  of  each  other's  feet  as  a  religious  insti- 
tution." So  it  was  that  every  symbolic  act  came 
to  be  regarded  as  of  the  nature  of  a  permanent 
ordinance  of  Christianity. 

Nearly  all  of  the  early  Baptist  churches  in  New 
England  were  Six  Principle,  entirely  or  in  part. 
In  1729  thirteen  churches  met  in  annual  association 
in  Newport,  all  of  them  Six  Principle.     There  were 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  53 

only  five  other  Baptist  churches  at  that  date  north 
of  New  Jersey,  so  Backus  informs  us,  and  two  of 
these  were  Seventh  Day.  The  First  Church  in 
Providence  was  soon  after  its  organization  evidently 
divided  on  the  practice  of  laying  on  of  hands,  with 
an  increasing  sentiment  in  its  favor.  At  length  the 
church  as  a  body  adopted  it — those  who  could  not 
agree  joining  with  Mr.  Olney  in  another  organiza- 
tion— and,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Caldwell,  "  kept  it, 
with  more  or  less  questioning  over  it,  for  consider- 
ably over  a  centuiy,  until  the  arrival  of  a  new  and 
happier  and  more  liberal  period  in  its  history." 
Moreover,  the  church  has  always  been  claimed  by 
the  Six  Principle  Baptists  as  in  sympathy  with 
their  views  in  all  its  early  years  from  its  origin. 
Knight,  their  historian,  writing  in  1827,  the  last 
year  of  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Stephen  Gano,  says  : 
"This  has  been  a  large,  respectable,  flourishing 
church,  almost  from  itc  first  establishment.  It  was 
settled  upon,  and  constantly  maintained  the  six 
principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  until  their 
present  pastor  received  the  pastoral  charge,  since 
which  they  have  renounced  the  imposition  of  hands 
on  private  members,  and  inclined  to  Calvinism, 
though  many  of  the  members  are  still  in  sentiment 
as  formerly." 

The  simple  facts,  then,  evidently  are  that  from 
the  beginning,  or  very  soon  after,  there  was  in  the 
church   a  strong  sentiment   in   favor  of  laying,  on 


54  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

of  hands.  In  1652-54  it  triumphed,  the  church 
was  divided,  and  the  members  henceforth  walked 
in  two  bodies.  But  the  question  which  was  the 
seceding  body,  if  such  a  question  remains,  does 
not  seem  to  be  one  of  very  serious  moment.  Both 
branches  remained  Baptist  churches.  The  point 
of  difference  was  a  minor  one.  The  tree  parted  in 
two  branches,  and  the  branch  which  survived  would 
inherit  rightfully  and  inevitably  the  life  and  history 
of  the  original  church,  and  the  continuity  remain 
unbroken. 

Rev.  A.  H.  Newman,  d.  d.  ("  History  of  Baptist 
Churches  in  the  United  States,"  p.  87),  says  :  "As 
there  was  nothing  whatever  in  the  way  of  a  church 
building,  nor  anything  the  possession  of  which 
would  identify  the  party  possessing  it  with  the 
original  church  to  the  exclusion  of  a  like  claim  on 
the  part  of  the  opposite  party,  it  seems  futile  to 
base  an  argument  for  the  priority  of  another 
church  on  the  supposition  that  one  of  these  parties 
rather  than  the  other  was  the  original  church,  and 
that  this  original  church  afterward  became  extinct." 

The  minor  nature  of  the  difference  between  the 
two  branches  will  appear,  when  the  history  of  the 
Second  Baptist  Church  in  Newport  is  recalled.  It 
was  organized  in  1656,  on  the  Six  Principle  basis^ 
and  was  composed  of  twenty-one  members,  who 
withdrew  from  the  First  Church.  For  a  long 
period  of  years   it   affiliated  with   the  Six  Principle 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  55 

Baptists.  In  1801  it  united  with  the  Warren  Asso- 
ciation, and  so  continues.  In  a  "  Historical 
Sketch"  of  the  church,  prepared  in  1886,  the 
writer  says  :  "  The  practice  of  laying  hands  on 
baptized  converts  is  continued  unto  this  day,  partly 
out  of  regard  for  an  old  custom,  because  there  is 
something  in  it  that  appears  pleasing  and  appropri- 
ate, and  because  the  church  holds  property  given 
in  the  name  of  the  'six  principles,'  and  it  is  sup- 
posed that  this  '  rite  of  confirmation  '  so  called, 
secures  the  right  of  administration  upon  those 
bequests."  (See  Minutes  of  Warren  Association 
for  1886.)  This  practice  is  no  barrier  to  full  fellow- 
ship with  churches  which  formerly  would  have  been 
called  "Five  Point"  Baptist  churches.  The  Six 
Principle  churches  have  been  gradually  disappear- 
ing for  many  years,  those  members  who  are  not 
taken  away  by  death  generally  joining  other  Bap- 
tist churches.  Knight  says  :  "  In  the  revival  and 
spread  of  the  Calvin istic  Baptists,  a  great  part  of 
those  churches  by  degrees  fell  in  with  their  views, 
and  united  with  them."  He  is  speaking  of  the 
more  Southern  churches.  What  he  says  is  true 
also  of  the  New  England  churches,  especially  since 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 

Rev.  C.  Edwin  Barrows,  d.  ix,  in  "The  Diary 
of  John  Comer,"  edited  by  him  and  Dr.  J.  W. 
Willmarth  ("Collections  of  the  Rhode  Island  Histor- 
ical Society,"  Vol.  VIII.,)  says,  in  Note  119,  of  the 


56  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

Six  Principle  churches  :  "  Many  of  them  were  dis- 
solved, and  others  became  Calvinistic  in  doctrine 
and  renounced  the  laying  on  of  hands,  at  least  as 
a  necessary  prerequisite  to  the  communion."  And 
Dr.  J.  W.  Willmarth,  in  a  note  in  the  same  volume, 
p.  1 20,  says  of  the  old  Philadelphia  Baptist  Associa- 
tion : 

The  churches  of  that  body  held  the  "Calvinistic  doc- 
trine" with  great  tenacity,  and  also  practised  the  "imposi- 
tion of  hands."  This  ancient  custom  has  gone  out  of  use, 
in  the  course  of  time,  among  American  Baptists,  except  in 
a  few  churches.  It  has  been  superseded  by  the  "right 
hand  of  fellowship"  [or  "of  welcome"].  In  a  few 
churches  the  old  practice  is  still  retained.  They  do  not 
make  it  a  "term  of  communion,"  or  a  subject  of  conten- 
tion with  their  brethren,  but  are  unwilling  to  abandon  a  rite 
which  seems  to  them  so  scriptural  and  so  significant  of  the 
gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  promised  to  the  believer.  With  some 
of  these  the  "hand  of  fellowship"  follows.  Others  con- 
sider this  unnecessary,  there  being  no  scriptural  authority 
for  it,  so  far  as  newly  baptized  converts  are  concerned  ; 
while  the  "laying  on  of  hands,"  accompanied  by  solemn 
prayer,  seems  to  them  far  superior  in  meaning  and  impres- 
siveness.  The  "imposition"  or  "laying  on  of  hands"  is 
now  practised  by  the  Second  and  Roxborough  Baptist 
Churches  of  Philadelphia,  and  until  recently  also  by  the 
Lower  Merion  Baptist  Church,  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadel- 
phia. It  is  retained  in  the  Second  Baptist  Church  of  New- 
port, which  has  now  nothing  else  in  common  with  the  "Six 
Principle  Baptists,"  but  is  in  fellowship  with  the  regular 
Baptists  of  Rhode  Island.  Whether  the  practice  is  found 
now  in   any  other  regular  Baptist  churches  in  the  Philadel- 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  5/ 

phia  Association  or  elsewhere  in  America,  I  cannot  say. 
But  if  we  may  judge  from  the  Philadelphia  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  from  notices  in  this  diary  and  elsewhere,  it  was 
once  a  part  of  acknowledged  order  among  regular  Ameri- 
can Baptists  generally,  and  was  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the 
"Six  Principle  Baptists,"  whose  sentiments  were  Arminian, 
and  (I  suppose)  are  so  still.  I  am  free  to  say  that  I  wish 
the  ancient  custom  could  be  restored  in  all  our  Baptist 
churches. 

Note  19.  Between  the  defection  in  1652  and  the 
defection  in  1771  there  was  by  no  means  unanimity 
in  the  church  in  reference  to  the  practice  of  lay- 
ing on  of  hands.  There  were  always  a  stricter  party 
and  a  more  liberal  party.  The  church  was  nomi- 
nally Six  Principle,  and  sent  delegates  to  the  Annual 
Association  and  entertained  the  Association  in  its 
turn,  the  other  places  of  entertainment  being  prin- 
cipally Swansea  and  Newport.  During  this  period 
the  church  undoubtedly  administered  the  rite  to  all 
persons  who  were  received  to  membership.  But 
there  was  constant  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
whether  or  not  it  should  be  demanded  in  all  cases 
as  a  prerequisite  to  communion.  Some  went  so 
far  as  to  insist  that  a  person  coming  to  the  commun- 
ion must  not  only  have  been  "under  hands"  him- 
self, but  must  look  upon  the  rite  as  so  sacred  and 
obligatory  as  to  demand  it  in  all  other  commu- 
nicants, as  they  demanded  scriptural  baptism. 
They  allowed  not  only  no  liberty  of  action  on  the 
part  of  the  communicant,  but  no  liberality  of  be- 


58  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

lief  in  his  mind  in  reference  to  others.  Others 
were  broader  in  their  views,  and  would  make  the 
omission  of  the  rite  no  barrier  to  communion  in  the 
case  of  baptized  believers.  About  the  year  1730, 
under  the  ministry  of  Elder  James  Brown,  a  grand- 
son of  Chad  Brown,  there  was  a  "  woeful  breach  or 
division,"  in  which  the  leading  men  in  the  church 
were  involved.  The  pastor  took  the  more  liberal 
view.  The  opponents  were  led  by  Samuel  Win- 
sor,  Sr.,  who  was  then  a  deacon.  An  account  of 
this  controversy  is  given  in  Guild's  "  Manning  and 
Brown  University,"  p.  153.  It  was  settled  after 
more  than  two  years  of  warm  discussion  by  a  con- 
cession to  the  stricter  party  in  the  interests  of  peace. 
The  agreement  was  signed  by  twenty-four  names, 
including  the  pastor  and  the  deacon,  under  date  of 
May  25,   1732,  and  contains  these  words: 

The  difference  between  us  is  this,  that  some  of  us  have 
borne  with  larger  communion  than  others.  We  shall  en- 
deavor, by  the  help  of  God,  not  to  offend  our  brethren  in 
this  thing,  nor  any  thing  whereby  it  shall  offend  their  con- 
sciences, but  shall  endeavor  to  be  a  building  up  of  peace 
and  tranquillity  within  the  spiritual  walls  of  Jerusalem.  .  . 
So  we  ought  to  be  of  one  body,  and  not  tearing  one  another 
to  pieces. 

The  church  was  not  disrupted  at  this  time.  But 
the  controversy  was  not  settled.  The  issue  was 
only  postponed.  The  liberal  spirit  grew  from  \'ear 
to  year,  and  the  coming  of  President  Manning  to 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  59 

Providence  and  to  the  church  hastened  the  end  of 
a  strife  that  had  vexed  the  church  from  the  begin- 
ning. President  Manning  had  been  ''under  hands." 
This  fact  was  stated  in  the  church  letter  which  he 
brought  to  Rhode  Island.  But  it  was  known  that 
he  was  not  strict  in  his  interpretation  of  the  rite, 
and  the  question  of  his  communing  with  the 
church  brought  on  the  long-delayed  crisis.  Rev. 
Samuel  Winsor,  Jr.,  had  been  pastor  for  many 
years.  His  home  was  in  the  country,  several  miles 
from  the  church.  His  health  was  feeble  and  his 
flock  was  scattered.  He  had  frequently  asked  to 
be  relieved  from  the  pastoral  responsibility.  In 
the  judgment  of  the  people  President  Manning's 
presence  made  it  possible  to  grant  the  pastor's  re- 
quest. Moreover,  the  meagreness  of  the  resources 
of  the  infant  college  made  it  necessary  for  the 
president  to  have  some  other  means  of  support, 
as  he  had  had  at  Warren.  The  indications  of 
God's  providence  seemed  very  plain,  and  the  re- 
sults have  given  abundant  proof  of  the  wisdom  of 
the  action  that  was  taken.  Dr.  Guild  in  "  Man- 
ning and  Brown  University,"  p.  178,  thus  describes 
the  action  of  the  church  : 

The  settlement  of  Dr.  Manning  in  Providence  was  hailed 
by  the  church  as  a  happy  event,  supposing,  as  they  did, 
that  by  calling  him  to  be  their  pastor  they  could  carry  into 
effect  the  wishes  of  Mr.  Winsor.  He  was  at  once  invited 
to   occupy   the   pulpit.      He   accepted    the    invitation,    and 


60  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

preached  a  sermon  on  a  Sunday  which  happened  to  be  the 
day  for  the  administration  of  the  Lord' s  Supper.  Several 
of  the  members  of  the  church  were,  however,  dissatisfied 
,that  "  the  privilege  of  transient  communion"  should  have 
been  allowed  to  Dr.  Manning  ;  believing  that  he  held  the 
doctrine  of  imposition  of  hands  rather  too  loosely,  and  that 
he  practised  it  more  to  accommodate  the  consciences  of 
others  than  to  meet  the  demands  of  his  own.  This  dissatis- 
faction led  to  the  formation  of  a  party,  and  to  a  series  of 
church  meetings,  in  which  the  majority,  however,  was 
found  in  every  instance  to  be  on  the  side  of  Manning. 
With  this  party  Mr.  Winsor  himself  sympathized  and  acted. 
This,  however,  was  thought  by  some  to  be  only  "the  osten- 
sible reason"  of  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Manning.  The 
true  cause  of  opposition  to  him  was  "his  holding  to  sing- 
ing in  public  worship,  which  was  highly  disgustful  to  Mr. 
Winsor."  .  .  Finally,  !Mr.  Winsor,  in  April,  1771,  pre- 
sented to  the  church  a  writing,  signed  by  a  number  of  the 
members,  stating  that  they  were  in  conscience  bound  to 
withdraw  from  such  as  did  not  "hold  strictly  to  the  six 
principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  as  laid  down  in  Heb. 
6  :  I,  2."    . 

That  it  may  be  .seen  that  there  is  no  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  which  was  the  seceding  party,  and 
how  the  secession  was  brought  about,  it  may  be 
well  to  quote  from  Knight,  the  historian  of  the 
Six  Principle  Baptists.  He  says  in  his  "  History," 
p.  257: 

Elder  James  Manning,  president  of  Rhode  Island  College, 
was  about  to  remove  from  Warren  to  Providence,  and  Dan- 
iel Jenks  and  Solomon  Drown,  Esqs. ,  were  appointed  at 
their  church  meeting  held  in    May,    1770,  to  wait  on  Mr. 


THE     MOTHER    CHURCH  6 I 

Manning  on  his  arrival,  and  invite  him  to  preach  in  the 
meeting-house.  Mr.  Manning  accepted,  and  delivered  a 
sermon  on  communion  day,  and  was  invited  to  partake  with 
them,  which  he  did,  which  caused  dissatisfaction  in  a  num- 
ber of  members,  on  account  of  Mr.  Manning's  not  holding 
strictly  to  laying  on  of  hands.  Although  under  hands  him- 
self )'et  he  was  willing  to  commune  with  those  that  were 
not.  A  church  meeting  was  appointed  in  order  for  recon- 
ciliation, and  by  a  vote  of  the  majority  present,  Mr.  Man- 
ning was  admitted  to  their  communion  and  transient  com- 
munion allowed.  The  dissatisfaction  continued  and  in- 
creased, whereupon  another  meeting  was  called  previous  to 
their  next  communion,  to  endeavor  to  reconcile  their  diffi- 
culties, when  Mr.  Manning  was  again  voted  to  the  privilege 
of  their  communion.  At  the  next  church  meeting  Elder 
Winsor  and  a  large  number  of  brethren  laid  their  grievance 
before  the  church,  which  was  that  Elder  Manning  received 
those  to  communion  not  under  hands.  They  agreed  to  refer 
the  matter  to  the  next  Association,  to  be  held  at  Swanzey  ; 
but  when  the  case  was  laid  before  that  body,  they  concluded 
that  the  church  must  settle  it  themselves.  At  the  next 
church  meeting  in  October  the  difficulty  was  taken  up,  and 
determined  by  vote  as  heretofore,  after  which  Elder  Winsor 
declined  to  administer  the  sacrament  on  account  of  the  dis- 
satisfaction of  brethren.  In  April  following,  Elder  Winsor 
presented  a  paper  to  the  church  meeting,  signed  by  a  large 
number  of  members,  as  follows  :  ' '  Brethren  and  Sisters  : 
We  must  in  conscience  withdraw  ourselves  from  all  those 
who  do  not  hold  strictly  to  the  six  principles  of  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  as  laid  down  in  Heb.  6  :  i,  2." 

After  this  a  final  separation  took  place,  and 
eighty-seven  person.s,  including  Elder  Winsor  and 
Deacon  John  D}'er,  were  organized  into  a  separate 


62  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

church  in  Johnston.  It  should  be  said  that  many 
of  these  members  did  not  come  from  the  First 
Church  in  Providence. 

Johnston  was  three  miles  distant.  The  line  of 
division  was  drawn,  for  the  most  part,  between  the 
Providence  members  and  the  countr}-  members, 
though  a  few  in  Providence  .sympathized  with  the 
departing  brethren.  As  the  former  church  prop- 
erty had  been  deeded  by  Parson  Tillinghast  to 
those  who  should  adhere  to  Six  Principle  views, 
an  amicable  financial  adjustment  was  agreed  upon, 
and  the  church  in  Providence  was  left  in  posses- 
sion of  the  propert}-,  the  field,  the  history,  and  the 
traditions  of  the  church,  the  lineal  successor  of  the 
church  founded  by  Roger  Williams.  This  was  ac- 
knowledged b\'  both  parties.  The  call  extended 
to  President  Manning  to  be  pastor  reads  :  "At  a 
meeting  of  the  members  of  the  old  Baptist  Church 
in  Providence,  in  church  meeting  a.ssembled  this 
31st  day  of  July,  1 77 1,  Daniel  Jenckes,  Esq.,  mod- 
erator :  Whereas,  Polder  Samuel  Winsor,  now  of 
Johnston,  has  withdrawn  himself  and  a  consider- 
able number  of  members  of  this  church  from  their 
communion  with  us  who  live  in  town,"  etc. 

Knight  puts  the  date  of  the  origin  of  the  John- 
-ston  church  as  1771,  and  in  his  "History"  (1827), 
still  lists  the  Providence  church  with  the  Six  Princi- 
ple churches ;  and  places  the  date  of  its  beginning 
as  1636,    the   year  of  Roger   Williams'    arrival    in 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  -  63 

Providence.  He  may  have  hoped  even  at  that  late 
day  that  the  Six  Principle  leaven  would  reassert  its 
power  and  become  again  a  controlling  element  in 
the  church.  There  was  no  disposition  to  deny  the 
validity  of  its  claim  to  be  the  original  church.  The 
records  of  the  Johnston  church  began  with  1771. 

The  controversy  did  not  end  with  the  call  of 
President  Manning.  Traces  of  i:  remained  well  into 
the  first  quarter  of  the  present  century  to  trouble 
the  pastor,  and  on  one  occasion  he  is  reported  to 
have  placed  his  resignation  in  the  hands  of  the 
church  to  bring  the  matter  to  its  final  issue.  Such 
tenacity  of  life  reveals  the  conscientiousness  of 
those  who  looked  upon  the  practice  as  an  enact- 
ment of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  character  of  the  church  and  the  changes 
brought  about  in  it  by  the  coming  of  President 
Manning  to  Providence,  are  set  forth  in  a  most  in- 
teresting manner  in  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  by  Moses  Brown  to  President  Wayland.  The 
letter  is  dated,  "Providence,  25th  of  5th  month, 
1833,"  and  is  found  entire  in  Guild's  "  History  of 
Brown  University,"  pp.  207-210.  Mr.  Brown  was 
then  in  his  ninety-fifth  year.      He  says  : 

I  conclude  to  give  thee  my  own  knowledge  respecting  the 
changes  and  alterations  in  the  Baptist  church  in  this  town, 
which  was  in  very  early  time  known  by  the  name  of  Six 
Principle  Baptist.  In  proof  of  this,  I  have  an  original 
letter    of    Elder    Pardon    Tillinghast,    signed    by    himself, 


64  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

Gregory  Dexter,  and  Aaron  Davis,  in  behalf  of  the  breth- 
ren of  the  church  in  this  town,  dated  in  the  5th  month, 
then  July,  168 1  ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by  Elder  Tilling- 
hast's  deed  of  the  Baptist  meeting-house  and  lot  to  the 
church.  .  .  Indeed,  the  difference  is  marked  between  the 
old  church  of  the  Baptists  in  this  town  and  after  Elder  Man- 
ning, a  worthy  godly  man  and  an  excellent  preacher,  whom 
I  attended  in  his  last  moments,  and  whom  we  all  loved.  In 
divers  respects,  however,  his  practice  was  different  from  the 
church  here,  and  much  difficulty  was  in  the  meeting  upon 
the  subject  of  singing  and  the  contribution  box,  these  being 
never  known  before.  To  give  a  vote  of  the  church  in  favor 
of  the  first  more  particularly,  the  female  members  were 
called  upon  to  vote,  though  not  usual,  and  my  mother  and 
sister  attended  accordingly.  This  occasioned  a  serious  di- 
vision with  the  old  deacons  and  members.  Elder  Manning 
having  powerful  aid  from  some  of  the  old  members,  and 
being  prudent  enough  to  keep  himself  out  of  the  strife, 
preserved  the  affection  most  generally  of  the  church.  At 
length  a  separation  was  concluded  on,  the  meeting-house 
and  lot  were  sold,  the  money  was  divided,  the  meeting- 
house in  Johnston  on  the  plain  was  built,  and  also  the 
house  now  called  the  First  Baptist.  My  brother  Joseph  was 
a  member  of  the  church,  and  when  he  brought  his  contri- 
bution box  to  my  mother' s  pew,  I  now  remember  my  re- 
luctant feelings  for  him,  our  family  and  the  church  never 
having  seen  the  like  in  our  meeting,  though  often  in  the 
Congregational  and  other  churches. 

The  question  may  suggest  itself,  to  what  extent 
a  church  may  modify  its  behef  or  practice,  and 
still  retain  its  identity.  There  are  Unitarian 
churches  in  New  England  which  have,  back  of 
their  Unitarian  life  and  present  denominational  fel- 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  65 

lowship.  a  century  or  a  century  and  a  half  of  Congre- 
gational life  and  history.  They  can  hardly  be  said 
to  ha\e  retained  their  ecclesiastical  identit}',  or  to 
be  in  any  just  sense  the  lineal  descendants  of  the 
original  churches  ;  and  yet  they  claim  as  their  own 
the  life  and  histor\'  of  the  past,  and  date  their  ori- 
gin at  the  beginning  of  the  original  church  life,  and 
this  claim  is  unquestioned.  The  Unitarian  church 
worshiping  in  King's  Chapel,  Boston,  was  origi- 
nalh'  an  Episcopal  church,  but  has  abandoned  the 
faith  and  government  of  the  original  church,  and 
yet  calls  itself  the  survdvor  and  inheritor  of  the 
past.  The  John  Bun\'an  Church  in  Bedford  is  to- 
day an  Independent  or  Congregational  church,  re- 
taining the  name  and  the  memorials  of  the  im- 
mortal allegorist,  and  inheriting  all  the  treasured 
wealth  of  the  histor\-  of  the  church  to  which  he 
ministered.  Other  similar  instances  might  be  cited. 
But  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Providence  has 
passed  through  no  such  changes  in  faith  or  practice. 
It  has  never  ceased  to  be  a  Bap^^'st  church  from  the 
beginning  of  its  histor\'  down  to  the  present  hour. 
During  all  the  difference  of  opinion  and  protracted 
discussion  about  the  rite,  which  received  recog- 
nition in  many  Baptist  churches  in  England  and 
America  during  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth 
and  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  pre- 
served unchanged  the  evangelical  faith,  the  con- 
gregational polit}'  and  discipline,  and  the  scriptural 


66  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

ordinances.  In  each  instance  of  defection  the  ma- 
jority of  the  church  remained  to  carry  forward  the 
hfe,  the  work,  and  the  history  of  the  church,  and 
to  preserve  its  continuity  without  break  or  interrup- 
tion. The  church  has  never,  for  a  single  instant, 
lost  its  existence  or  its  identity. 

It  has  not,  indeed,  either  at  the  beginning  or 
since,  adopted  any  articles  of  faith,  or  put  forth 
any  creedal  statement.  The  circumstances  of  its 
origin  were  exceptional,  and  must  not  be  taken  as 
a  guide  for  to-day.  Amid  the  multitude  of  relig- 
ious faiths  in  our  time,  all  claiming  to  rest  upon  the 
word  of  God,  a  church  needs  to  have  some  basis 
of  agreement,  though  it  may  be  slight,  on  which  its 
members  may  unite,  and  by  which  it  may  be  known 
and  distinguished.  Fellowship  and  recognition  by 
those  outside  can  be  secured  only  by  some  definite 
expression  of  belief  A  church  must  stand  for 
something,  if  it  is  to  have  either  growth  or  ecclesi- 
astical fellowship.  Yet  the  old  First  Church  has 
held  its  faith,  and  borne  its  name,  in  such  a  way 
that  its  position  has  never  been  misunderstood,  and 
when  it  united  with  the  recently  organized  Warren 
Association  in  1782,  under  the  guidance  of  Presi- 
dent Manning,  and  entered  into  fellowship  with 
other  Baptist  churches,  that  act  was  in  itself  a 
declaration  of  faith  in  points  of  essential  doctrir.e 
and  polity,  though  the  church  has  always  allowed 
the  largest  liberty  to  the  individual. 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  6/ 

The  second  seceding  church,  hke  the  first,  went 
to  pieces  after  an  existence  of  a  httle  more  than 
sixty  years.  How  any  candid  and  careful  historian 
can  regard  that  church  as  the  original  church,  and 
accept  the  view  that  the  First  Church  in  Provi- 
dence originated  in  1771,  is  simply  unaccountable. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  so  able  a  work  as  Johnson's 
"Universal  Cyclopaedia,"  in  its  new  edition,  should 
give  publicity  to  an  opinion  which  has  no  argu- 
ment in  its  support,  has  never  had  any  currency, 
or  recognition  even,  among  historians,  and  rests 
upon  an  utter  misinterpretation  of  historic  facts. 
There  needs  to  be  a  new  edition  of  this  "Cyclo- 
paedia," in  which  this  statement,  and  other  equally 
erroneous  statements  in  reference  to  the  early  Bap- 
tists in  Rhode  Island,  shall  be  revised,  corrected, 
and  brought  into  harmony  with  established  and 
accredited  history. 

Note  20.  A  question  has  been  raised  in  some 
minds  as  to  the  priority  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
in  Providence  over  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  New- 
port, aside  from  the  question  of  its  continuity.  As 
we  have  seen,  the  date  of  the  origin  of  the  church 
in  Providence  cannot  be  determined  positively. 
While  it  is  usually  given  as  1639,  it  was  undoubt- 
edly earlier  by  one  year,   possibly  by  two. 

John  Clarke,  m.  d.,  one  of  the  founders  of  New- 
port, a  man  of  great  learning,  ability,  and  piety, 
arrived   in   Boston   in   November,    1637,  where   he 


68  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

expected  to  settle  and  practise  his  profession. 
There  is  not  the  sHghtest  evidence  that  he  was  a 
Baptist  at  the  time  of  his  arrival.  He  would  not 
have  been  tolerated,  if  he  had  been.  Good  authority- 
says  he  became  "a  member  of  the  church  in  Bos- 
ton." His  departure  from  Boston  was  entirely 
voluntary.  He  was  a  lover  of  peace,  and  was 
beginning  undoubtedly  to  have  some  clear  concep- 
tions of  religious  libert}'.  The  antinomian  contro- 
versy in  connection  with  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson 
was  then  at  its  height.  He  himself  said  :  "Seeing 
they  were  not  able  so  to  bear  each  with  other  in 
their  different  understandings  and  consciences,  as 
in  those  utmost  parts  of  the  world  to  live  peace- 
ably together,"  he  voluntarily  determined  to  seek 
another  place,  "forasmuch  as  the  land  was  before 
us  and  wide  enough."  He  went  first,  with  others, 
to  New  Hampshire,  as  it  is  supposed,  but  finding 
the  winter  too  severe,  in  the  spring  he  turned 
southward.  He  had  heard  of  Roger  Williams 
and  his  banishment,  and  visiting  Providence  on  his 
journey,  he  with  his  companions  was  warmly  wel- 
comed by  Mr.  Williams,  and  at  his  suggestion  and 
through  his  agency,  they  purchased  of  the  Indians 
the  island  of  Aquidneck,  now  called  Rhode  Island, 
and  planted  the  new  colony  at  Portsmouth,  near 
Newport.      This  was  in  March,   1638. 

The   colony  was   composed  of  many  disaffected 
persons  from  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  some  of  whom 


THE    MOTHER    CHUKCH  69 

had  been  excommunicated  on  account  of  anti- 
nomian  views.  Mr.  William  Hutchinson,  the  hus- 
band of  Anne,  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the 
purchasers.  She  remained  with  the  colony  until 
after  her  husband's  death  in  1642.  Mr.  William 
Coddin;4ton,  a  wealthy  merchant  in  Boston  and  a 
deputy  to  the  court,  who  had  defended  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  and  opposed,  though  unsuccessfully, 
the  proceedings  against  Mr.  Wheelwright,  was  the 
first,  and  John  Clarke  the  second,  of  the  eicrhteen 
persons  whose  names  appear  on  the  civil  com- 
pact, signed  March  7,  1638.  Soon  after,  Arnold 
says  May  i,  1639,  Mr.  Coddington,  Mr.  Clarke, 
and  others  established  the  new  colony  at  Newport. 
Being  religious  people  they  held  services  from  the 
first.  It  is  recorded  that  "  Mr.  John  Clarke,  who 
was  a  man  of  letters,  carried  on  public  worship." 
A  church  was  soon  organized,  which  was  undoubt- 
edly a  Congregational  church.  The  church  in 
Boston  sent  a  deputation  to  it  to  reprimand  it  for 
its  disorderly  conduct.  This  it  would  not  have 
done,  had  the  cliurch  been  a  Baptist  church.  The 
nature  of  the  disorderly  conduct  is  apparent  from 
"  Winthrop's  Journal,"  which  says:  "They  gath- 
ered a  church  in  a  very  disorderly  way  ;  for  they 
took  some  excommunicated  persons,  and  others 
who  were  members  of  the  church  in  Boston  and 
w^ere  not  dismissed."  Callender  says  :  "The  peo- 
;ile  who  came  to  Rhode  Island  [by  which  he  means 


yo  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

Portsmouth  and  Newport]  who  were  Puritans  of  the 
highest  form,  had  desired  and  depended  on  the 
assistance  of  Mr.  Wheehvright,  a  famous  Congre- 
gational minister  aforementioned.  But  lie  chose  to 
go  to  Long  Island,  where  he  continued  some  years." 
These  statements  prove  conclusively  the  character 
of  the  church  and  its  doctrinal  status.  Neither  at 
Portsmouth  nor  at  Newport,  where  a  church  existed 
possibly  as  early  as  1639  of  which  Mr.  Clarke  was 
pastor,  is  there  any  appearance  thus  far  of  Baptist 
sentiment.  Those  emigrants  from  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  who  were  Baptistically  inclined,  went  to 
Providence  and  not  to  Newport,  as  they  would 
have  done  if  there  had  been  Baptists  there  at  the 
beginning  of  the  settlement.  Governor  Winthrop 
says  (Vol.  I.,  p.  293)  :  "  Many  of  Boston  and 
others,  who  were  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  judgment 
and  party,  remov^ed  to  the  isle  of  Aquiday ;  and 
others  who  were  of  the  rigid  separation,  and 
favored  Anabaptism,  removed  to  Providence,  so  as 
those  parts  became  to  be  well  peopled." 

Moreover,  the  Newport  church  is  claimed  by  the 
Congregationalists  as  being  of  their  faith  and  order, 
though  guilty  of  disorderly  conduct.  See  "Sketches 
of  Concfreerationalism  in  Rhode  Island,"  bv  James 
Gardiner  Vose,  d.  d.  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles,  pastor 
of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Newport  from 
1755  to  1778,  and  subsequently  president  of  Yale 
College  until  his  death  in  1795,  in  an  unpublished 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  7  I 

manuscript  now   in   the    possession   of   the  church 
which  he  sensed,  says  : 

The  first  church  in  Rhode  Island  was  Congregational, 
and  settled  here  [/.  i'.,  in  Providence,  where  the  manuscript 
was  prepared  as  an  appeal  to  the  Legislature  in  behalf  of  an 
act  of  incorporation  for  the  Newport  Congregational  Church] 
in  the  spring  of  1636  under  Rev.  Roger  Williams,  who 
administered  the  Lord's  Supper  and  baptism  of  infants  by 
sprinkling  for  the  first  three  years,  till  in  1639  he  and  his 
church  renounced  their  baptism,  and  were  baptized  by 
plunging.  Brother  Holiman  first  plunging  Mr.  Williams,  and 
then  Mr.  Williams  in  turn  plunging  the  rest  or  most  of  them. 
The  first  church  in  Newport  was  gathered  there  in  1640, 
and  was  Congregational  and  Pedobaptist  under  Dr.  Clarke, 
its  elder,  and  continued  for  about  four  years,  when  it  became 
Baptist  also.  .  .  Though  the  two  Congregational  churches, 
Providence  and  Newport,  were  broken  up  and  became  Bap- 
tist, yet  a  body  of  the  inhabitants  did  not  lose  their  Pedo- 
baptism.  Their  disgust  with  Boston,  however,  prevented 
them  from  having  a  minister  until  about  1670,  when  there 
was  found  a  considerable  number  of  Congregationalists, 
which  survived  and  lived  through  the  desolation  of  our  camp 
by  the  Baptists  and  Friends. 

If  the  supposition  is  true  that  Roger  Wilhams  and 
his  friends  organized  a  church  immediately  on 
arriving  at  Pro\'idence,  Dr.  Stiles  is  undoubtedly 
correct  in  saying  that  it  was  a  Congregational 
church.  But  of  such  an  organization  we  have 
no  knowledge  whatever.  Stephen  Hopkins  ("His- 
tory of  Providence,"  1765)  thinks  it  probable.  He 
says  ; 


J2  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

The  first  church  formed  at  Providence  by  Mr.  Williams 
and  others  seems  to  have  been  on  the  model  of  the  Congre- 
gational churches  in  the  other  New  England  Colonies.  But 
it  did  not  continue  long  in  this  form,  for  most  of  its  mem- 
bers very  soon  embraced  the  principles  and  practices  of  the 
Baptists,  and  some  time  earlier  than  1639  gathered  and 
formed  a  church  at  Providence  of  that  society. 

But,  however  it  may  have  been  in  Providence, 
we  have  evidence  that  the  Newport  settlers  formed 
a  church  at  once. 

Governor  Winthrop  says  that  there  were  "pro- 
fessed Anabaptists"  on  the  island  in  1640—41. 
This  is  the  earliest  intimation  we  have,  from  any 
source,  of  the  presence  there  of  any  persons  claim- 
ing to  hold  Baptist  views.  A  Mr.  Lechford,  writing 
January,  1641,  of  the  Newport  church,  says:  "But 
that  church,  I  hear,  is  now  dissolved."  Rev.  John 
Comer,  who  was  the  fifth  pastor  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  in  Newport,  says  (1730)  that  from  "pri- 
vate information"  he  learned  that  his  church  "was 
constituted  about  1644."  Rev.  John  Callender, 
his  successor,  cautiously  mentions  the  same  date  as 
the  traditional  one.  It  seems  evident  that  the  first 
church  formed  in  Newport  was  a  Congregational 
church,  and  went  to  pieces  by  reason  of  differences 
of  opinion  and  changing  views,  "as  was  the  case 
with  divers  churches  in  the  country,"  and  that  some 
time  between  1640  and  1644  Mr.  Clarke  and  some 
of  his  neighbors  accepted  Baptist  views,  and  began 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  73 

to  hold  separate  meetings.  Ur.  A.  H.  Newman 
says:  "It  is  probable  that  the  Baptist  meeting, 
begun  in  164 1  or  1642,  assumed  more  completely 
the  character  of  a  church  in  1644."  According  to 
Mr.  Comer,  the  first  certain  record  of  this  church 
bears  the  date  of  October  12,  1648,  at  which  time 
there  were  twelve  members  in  full  communion,  and 
three  others  to  be  added.  The  traditional  number 
of  the  constituent  members  of  the  church  is  eight. 
When  and  by  whom  Mr.  Clarke  and  his  com- 
panions were  baptized  we  have  no  knowledge  what- 
ever. The  baptism  may  have  been  administered 
by  Mark  Lucar,  an  English  Particular  Baptist,  who 
came  to  Rhode  Island  about  this  time,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New- 
port church.  Vov  man}'  years  he  was  one  of  its 
ruling  elders.  Or  more  probably,  it  was  adminis- 
tered by  the  authorized  representative  of  the  church 
in  Providence,  po.ssibly  by  Mr.  Williams  himself 
But  definite  knowledge  is  wanting.  It  is  this 
ignorance  that  has  led  a  few  persons,  anxious  to 
prove  the  priorit>'  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
Newport  by  showing,  if  possible,  that  the  first 
church  formed  there  was  a  Baptist  church,  to  sug- 
gest the  very  improbable  conjecture  that  Mr.  Clarke 
had  been  baptized  in  the  old  world.  If  he  had 
been,  Roger  Williams  would  have  certainly  sought 
baptism  at  his  hands,  instead  of  accepting  it  at  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Holiman,  who  had   never  been   bap- 


74  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

tized.  The  absence  of  an}'  regularly  qualified  ad- 
ministrator has  always  been  regarded  by  Baptist 
writers  as  the  only  and  sufficient  justification  of  the 
baptism  of  Roger  Williams  by  Mr.  H oilman. 

Morgan  Edwards  sa\'s  of  the  Newport  church  : 
"  It  is  said  to  ha\'e  been  a  daughter  of  the  Provi- 
dence church."  He  also  adds  of  Mr.  Clarke: 
"  Tradition  says  that  he  was  a  preacher  before  he 
left  Boston,  but  that  he  became  a  Baptist  after  his 
settlement  in  Rhode  Island  by  means  of  Roger 
Williams."  Knight  and  others  adopt  this  view. 
Dr.  Armitage's  general  statement  about  Mr.  Clarke's 
change  of  views  seems  correct :  "  A  long  train  of 
circumstances  indicates  that  his  steps  had  led  in  the 
same  path  with  those  of  Williams  in  the  main  ; 
through  Puritanism,  love  of  religious  liberty,  dis- 
gust at  the  intolerance  of  Massachusetts,  and  so 
into  full  Baptist  positions." 

It  should  be  added  that  jM'ior  to  1 847  the  First 
Baptist  Church  in  Newport  did  not  think  of  claim- 
ing an  earlier  origin  than  1644.  See  "  Minutes  of 
the  Warren  Association"  for  1847.  The  claims 
made  by  the  church  at  that  time  were  completely 
answered  by  a  careful  and  candid  "Review,"  pre- 
pared by  Dr.  J.  N.  Granger,  Dr.  Alexis  Caswell, 
and  Professor  William  Gammell,  and  read  to  the 
Association  September  12,  1850.  The  claims  were 
shown  to  be  groundless,  and  the  arguments  urged 
in  their  support  to  rest  upon  an  imperfect  examina- 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 


7^ 


tion  of  historic  documents  and  erroneous  inferences 
from  them.  Although  the  church  succeeded  at 
that  time  in  changing  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Associa- 
tion the  date  of  its  origin  from  1644  to  1638,  it 
did  not  succeed  in  changing  the  beHef  of  the  de- 
nomination at  large,  or  even  of  the  immediate  com- 
munity. 

Rev.  Henry  Jackson,  d.  d.,  pastor  of  the  Cen- 
tral Baptist  Church  in  Newport,  prepared  by  vote 
of  the  Rhode  Island  Baptist  State  Convention,  of 
which  he  was  at  that  time  vice-president,  "  An 
Account  of  the  Churches  in  Rhode  Island,"  and 
read  it  before  that  body,  November  8,  1853.  In 
that  account  he  reviewed  thoroughly  the  whole 
question  of  priority  and  continuit}%  having  before 
him  all  known  facts  pertaining  to  them,  and  all  the 
arguments  presented  on  both  sides,  and  affirmed 
and  reaffirmed  his  conclusion  that  the  First  Church 
in  Providence  was  "  the  first  church  gathered  in  this 
colony,  and  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  new  settle- 
ments of  America  "  He  added,  "  It  is  evident  that 
the  main  strength  of  the  church  belonged  to  that 
portion  of  it  which  at  the  division  continued,  as 
the  church  had  always  done,  in  the  center  of  the 
town,  and  from  which  all  that  has  c\cr  been  of  any 
special  note  to  Baptists,  or  to  the  denomination  at 
large,  has  emanated."  The  dix'ision  to  which  Dr. 
Jackson  referred  was  the  division  of  1652.  It  was 
not  until  the  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 


76  THE    MOTHER    CHURCH 

tury  that  there  arose  a  historian  rash  enough  to 
assert  that  the  defection  of  1771  destroyed  the 
light  of  the  Providence  church  to  call  itself  the 
mother  church.  Dr.  Jackson  did  not  hesitate  to 
say  :  "I  do  not  question  that  had  Comer  lived 
until  1739  [that  is,  until  Mr.  Callender's  discourse 
had  been  delivered]  he  would  have  sympathized 
with  Mr.  Callender  entirely  in  the  chronology  of 
these  churches." 

Mr.  Comer  was  born  August  i,  1704,  and  was 
ordained  pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  Newport, 
May  19,  1726.  He  could  not  have  been  more 
than  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  years  of  age  when 
he  wrote  his  manuscript.  He  did  not  live  to  revise 
it,  dying  May  23,  1734,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty 
years.  The  manuscript  was  known  to  be  in  exist- 
ence for  one  hundred  and  seventeen  years  before 
the  church  ventured  to  change  the  date  of  its  or- 
ganization on  the  strength  of  it,  and  the  church 
had  had  an  existence  for  two  hundred  years  (be- 
lieving that  it  was  probably  born  in  1644,  which 
was  four  years  earlier  than  the  first  known  record), 
before  it  thought  of  adding  an  ante-natal  period  of 
six  years  to  its  existence. 

In  Comer's  manuscript,  according  to  the  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Adlam,  after  the  words  "the  Newport 
church  in  age  is  prior  to  any  other  Baptist  church 
in  America,"  there  is  this  note,  "excepting  that  of 
Providence."      Mr.    Adlam   thinks   this  was   added 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  77 

by  a  latei  hand.  As  the  manuscript  (or  that  part  of 
the  manuscript)  which  contained  the  reference  to 
Mr.  Vaughan's  visit  to  Providence  and  the  age  of 
the  Newport  church,  has  disappeared,  and  cannot 
be  found  in  the  hbrary  either  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society  or  of  the  Backus  Historical  So- 
ciety, it  is  impossible  to  verify  or  disprove  Mr.  Ad- 
lam's  supposition.  It  is  possible  that  Mr.  Comer 
may  have  ultimately  reached  a  different  conclusion. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
Providence  has  always  believed  that  the  distinction 
of  being  the  oldest  church  in  this  colony,  and  the 
first  Baptist  church  in  America,  belongs  rightfulh' 
to  it.  The  preamble  to  the  charter  of  ' '  The 
Charitable  Baptist  Society"  connected  with  the 
church,  granted  b>'  the  General  Assembly  in  May, 
1774,  contains  the  following  words:  "Being  the 
oldest  Christian  church  in  the  State  or  Colony." 
The  inscription  on  the  bell  has  been  already  given. 

This  prevailing  belief  in  the  church,  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  in  the  entire  country,  found  expression 
in  the  language  of  Stephen  Hopkins  (1765)  : 

This  first  church  of  Baptists  at  IVovidence  hath  from  the 
beginning  kept  itself  in  repute,  and  maintained  its  disci- 
pline, so  as  to  avoid  scandal  or  schism  to  this  day;  hath  al- 
ways been,  and  still  is,  a  numerous  congregation,  and  in 
which  I  have  with  pleasure  observed  very  lately  sundry  de- 
•scendants  fiom  each  of  the  above-mentioned  families,  ex- 
cept Holiman. 


^8  THE  moth?:r  church 

The  following  paragraph  is  from  the  "  Review"  b}- 
Drs.  Granger  and  Caswell  and  Professor  Gammcll  : 

The  priority  in  age  of  the  First  Church  in  Providence  has 
been  asserted  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  Baptists  and  ot 
others.  The  story  has  been  told  by  father  to  son,  and 
handed  down  through  thousands  of  the  famihes  of  this 
State  and  land  without  change.  The  earliest  chronicles 
have  recorded  it.  It  has  been  woven  into  every  history 
which  was  ever  written  of  the  State  or  of  the  denomination. 
It  is  impossible  that  an  event  so  notorious,  so  widely  pub- 
lished at  the  time,  and  so  universally  received,  could  then 
or  afterward  ha\e  been  misrepresented  in  this  its  most  im- 
portant particular. 

In  the  absence  of  original  church  records  in  both 
cases,  it  is  probable  that  the  traditional  dates  of 
the  origin  of  the  two  churches,  viz.,  1639  '^'"'d 
1644,  though  the  foi-mer  is  undoubtedly  a  little  too 
late  and  the  latter  is  a  little  too  early,  will  continue 
to  be  accepted  as  approximately  correct  by  the 
great  majorit}'  of  candid  students  of  Baptist  his- 
tor\',  and  that  the  First  Church  in  Providence  will 
be  recognized  by  American  Baptists,  in  the  future 
as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  as  "the  mother  church." 
The  unprejudiced  judgment  of  Prof  George  P. 
Fisher,  of  Yale  University,  covers  the  main  points, 
which  have  been  considered.  In  his  recent  vol- 
ume, "The  Colonial  Era,"  p.  143,  he  says  of  Dr. 
Clarke  and  the  Newport  church  :  "At  Newport  he 
was  the   principal  member,  and  the  minister  of  an 


THE    MOTHER    CHURCH  79 

Anabaptist  church — to  use  the  name  then  current — 
which,  after  a  few  years,  was  gathered  there."  And 
of  Roger  WilHams  and  his  baptism,  and  the  Provi- 
dence church,  he  uses  the  following  language  (p. 
123):  "In  1638  Williams  was  immersed  by  an 
Anabaptist  named  Holyman,  and  then  he  himself 
immersed  Holyman  and  ten  others.  There  was 
thus  constituted  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Amer- 
ica." 


mm 


1,1  J 


INDEX 


Adlara,  Rev.  Samuel 47,76 

Anabaptists:  religious  liberty 
first  proclaimed  by,  in 
Switzerland,  12  ;  in  Germany, 
Holland,  and  England,  12: 
martyrs  for  it,  12;  practised 
immersion,  29,  ;'.i):  drift  to 
Providence,  7ii:   appeared  in 

Newport 72 

Arraitage,  Tliomas,  d.  r)...17.  is,  71 
Arnold,  Hon.  Samuel  G i'> 

Backus,  Rev.  Isaac 4.'),  4(i 

Baptists  of  England  ;  pro- 
claimed religious  lilierty  and 
separation  of  Church  and 
State,  12,  l:j :  when  immersicin 
wa.s  introduced  among  them, 
2S-:u :  the  First  Particular 
church  organized.  ;:!0  ;  prac- 
tised laying  on  of  hands,  ."v2 ; 
some  of  them  practised  feet- 
washing  ■'>2 

Barber,  Edward 20,  :'.l 

Barrows.  Comfort  K.,  n.  i> 41,  -"i.j 

Batten,  .lohn :!0 

Berkeley,  Bish.  (xcorge 12 

Blount,  Richard :10 

Boston:  Roger  Williams  ar- 
rived at.  l-T  :  .Tohn  Clarke  ar- 
rived at.  117 :  hatred  of, 
against  Providence.  l.'i: 
church  in.  sent  deputation  to 
Congregational      chnrcli     in 

Newport iV 

Bradford,  Governor  William 33 


Brown,  Chad  :  settled  in  Provi- 
dence,   20 ;    minister   of   the 

church 20,  39,  40,  50 

Brown.  Rev.  James 58 

Brown,  .Joseph 64 

Brown,  >[oses t'>3 

Brown.  Nicholas 44 

Brown  Cniversity 22,  :^S 

Bunyan  Church,  Bedford 6.') 

Hurrage.  Henry   S.,  D.   i> ■](>,  47 

Busher,  Leonard 2.s,  :!(),  31 

Caldwell.  Samuel  L.,  i>.  i>...40,  42 

43.47,  53 

Cal lender.  Rev.  John 4(>,  69,  72 

Caswell,  President  Ale.xis,  "  Re- 
view of  Adlam  "  by 74,  77,  78 

Chauncey,  Rev.  (Charles :  ar- 
rived at  Plymouth,  35 ;  de- 
sired as  assistant  pastor,  pas- 
toral Scituate,  believed  in  in- 
fant and  adult  immersion. .:!5,  36 

Clarke,  Rev.  James 41 

Clarke,  Rev.  John,  M.  d.  :  re- 
ferred to,  36.  41.  67  :  arrived  in 
Boston  and  left  because  of  its 
unhappy  condition,  67,  68; 
visited  Rojrer  Williams.  68; 
at  his  suggestion  yilanted  col- 
ony at  Portsmouth,  68  ;  signer 
of  the  civil  compact,  69:  re- 
moved witli  colony  to  New- 
port, 69  :  a  preacher,  69,  73,  78  ; 
when  he  became  a  Baptist, 
72,  74  :  when  and  where  bap- 
tized, 73;  becoming  a  Bajitist  74 
8l 


82 


INDEX 


Coddingrtoii.  William..  33,  34,  36 
41,  68,  69 

Confes.sioii.'* :  of  Anabaptists  at 
Schloitheim,  TJ :  of  Englisli 
Baptists 12,  13 

Comer.  Rev.  John..  41,  40,  4S,  49 
72,  75,  70 

Crandall,  .lohn 23 

Davis,  Aaron (i;) 

Dexter,  Gresoty :  settled  in 
Providence,  20 ;  minister  of 

the  church 20,  4t;.  4.S,  .">n 

Dexter.  Henry  M.,  i>.  n...  I'l.  27 

Drown,  Solomon liO 

Dunster,  Henry 23 

Dyer,  John (il 

Edwards,  Morgan 4."),  73 

Evans'  "  Early  En.£rlish  Bap- 
tists"   :>2 

Featly,  Doctor 31 

Pelt,  Joseph  Barlow 3.') 

First  Baptist  Church  in  New- 
port :  spoken  of,  41.  47,  48.  49  ; 
younger  than  the  Providence 
church,  ()7-7S;  origin  of  72; 
traditional  date  concerning, 
72 :  first  certain  record  of.  72  ; 
number  of  constituent  mem- 
bers. 73  ;  daughter  of  t  h  e 
Providence  church,  73:  its 
former  view  of  the  date  of  its 
origin.  74:  when  changed. 
74;  change  shown  to  be  un- 
warranted, 74.  7.') :  view  o  f 
Com  r  and  Adlam.  7."i.  76; 
uniformly    rejected,    77,    78; 

final  statement 78 

First  Baptist  Church  in  Provi- 
dence ;  date  of  organization 
11  n  known.  16:  traditional 
date  of  organization,  17  ;  true 


date  probably  earlier.  17; 
how  church  originated,  16; 
constituent  members,  17,  18; 
a  New  Testament  church,  18; 
without  articles  of  faith,  19, 
65;  basis  of  union.  19;  its 
first  ministers  unpaid,  20,  21, 
22  ;  its  first  house  of  worship, 
21,  42 ;  its  second,  21  ;  its 
present,  21,  43-4.') ;  had  plu- 
rality of  elders,  20,  40,  41 ;  a 
Six  Principle  church,  22, 
4.T-63  ;  the  (irst  sei)aration,  22, 
4.5-.")7,  75  ;  the  second  separa- 
tion, 22,  57-67,  75  ;  influenced 
by  the  establishment  of  the 
College  and  the  pastorate  of 
President  Manning,  22 ;  the 
mother  church,  23,  67-78; 
never  ceased  to  be  a  Baptist 
church.  65;  joined  Warren 
.\ssociation,  66;  and  .so  made 
declaration  of  faitli.  61! ;  older 
tlian  the  Newport  church, 
67-78;  view  of  Comer  and 
Adlam,  75,  76  ;  priority  never 
questioned  in  the  church  or 
the  denomination  at  large,  77, 

78;  final  statement 78 

Fisher,  Prof,  (teorgc  P.,  D.  i> 78 

Fox,  C.eorge 40 

Gammell.  Prof  AVilliam :  ex- 
tracts from  his  "  Life  of  Roger 
Williams,"  25,  26.  27;  "His- 
tory of  First  Baptist  Church," 
40:  "  Review  of  Adlam  "'.74.  77.  78 

Gano.  Rev.  Stephen,  m.  n 2'. 

George.  John 2: 

Gould,  Thomas 23 

Granger,  J.  N.,  i'.  o..  "  Review 
of  Adlam  "  by 7t,  77.  78 

Hague.  William,  d.  d.  :  extract 
from    his  '•   Historical    Dis- 


INDEX 


83 


course  at  the  Two  Hundredth 
Anniversary  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  " 14,  15 

Holinian,  Ezekiel  :  liaptized 
Roger  Williams  and  t)aptized 
by  Williams,  11,  71,  7,s ;  he 
and  wife  members  of  First 
Church,  17,  18;  justification 
of     his     baptism    of     Roger 

Williams 73 

Holmes,  Obadiali 23 

Hopkins,  Stephen 46,  71,  77 

Howe,   Samuel :    tribute  to  by 

Williams 14 

Hutchinson,  William 68 

Hutchinson„Mrs.  Anne 17,  68 

Immersion  :  when  introduced 
among  the  English  Baptists, 
27-31:  not  a  modern  rite,  28, 
30;  view  of  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter, 
27 ;  view  of  Prof.  W.  H.  Whit- 
sitt,  32 ;  always  practised  by 
Eastern  Church.  28;  pre- 
scribed by  English  I'rayer 
Book,  :U ;  infant  innnersion 
practised  in  Cliuich  of  Eng- 
land till  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury    28 

Jackson,  Henry,  i>.  d 74,  7") 

Jenks,  Daniel 60 

.Tenks,  Governor  .Toseph 4.') 

.Johnson's   New,  ITniversal    Cy- 

clopredia 32.  66,  67 

Johnston  Church  :  organized  at, 

61,  62,  61  ;  became  extinct 66 

Kifflii  '.nauuscriiit 30 

King's  Chapel,  Boston 6.'') 

Knight's  "  History  of  the  Six 
Principle  Baptists  "....jU,  53,  .5.") 

60,  62,  74 

Knowle«,  Prof,  .hnncs  D.,  "Life 
of  Ivoger  Williams  " 4;) 


Laying  on  of  hands  :  a  practice 
of  the  church,  22,  45-63;  its 
long  prevalence,  45,  53,  62 ; 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  it, 
57,  58 ;  its  fiiuil  discontin- 
uance, 5"J-63 ;  practised  by 
English  Baptists,  .52 ;  and  by 
New  England  Baptists  gen- 
erally, 52,  .53  :  its  gradual  dis- 
appearance. 55 ;  a  few  Bap- 
tist churches  still  retain  it.. 55-57 

Lucar,  Mark 36,  73 

'•  Manning  and  Brown  T'niver- 
sity."  by  Reuben  A.  (Juild, 
LL.D 58.  .5y,  63 

Manning,  .lames,  u.  n. :  came 
to  Providence,  '22;  president 
of  college  and  pastor  of  the 
ciiurcli,  22;  preached  dedica- 
tion sermon,  4:! ;  influence  on 
the  church,  .'I'.i.  63  ;  had  been 
"under  hands," -59;  but  a  lib- 
eral in  opinion 00,  61 

Xcwnum,  I'rof.  .Vlbcrt  IL,  D.  D. 
33,  34,  .54,  72 

Newport;  settled,  67-69;  civil 
compact  signed,  69;  some  of 
colonists,  68.  69;  distinction 
between  thcni  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Providence,  70;  jiros- 
perity,  42;  its  earliest  church 
not  Baptist,  69-72  ;  clainu'd  by 
Congregationalists,  70,  71  ;  lic- 
came  extinct.  7L72:  suc- 
ceeded by  Baptist  church. ..72,  7S 

Olney.  Thomas;  himself  and 
wife  excommunicated  at  Sa- 
lem and  members  of  church 
in  Providence,  17;  minister 
of  the  church,  20.  48 ;  with- 
drew from  church.  22,  45,  53  ; 
organized  another,  45,  .53; 
which  died 46,  47 


84 


INDEX 


Olney,  Thomas,  Jr 46 

Osborne,  Thomas -'o 

Painter,  Thomas '■!■'■'< 

Philadelphia  Confession  of 
Faith "tV 

Plymouth  :  afraid  to  offend  tlio 
inhabitants  of  the  liay,  10: 
sent  Roger  Williams  out  of 
its  borders,  10 ;  President 
Chauncey  arrived  at,  :i.'i ;  de- 
sired him  as  assistant  pastor..  :V> 

Providence:  named,  U :  his- 
toric ground,  10:  the  birth- 
place of  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty, 12,  m\  the  colonists,  18, 
20:  distinction  between  them 
and  the  people  of  Newpurt 70 

Reeves.  Mrs.,  a  widow.  e.\- 
communicated  at  Salem,  and 
member  of  church  in  Provi- 
dence    IS 

Religious  Liberty  :  a  "  pestilen- 
tial "  doctrine,  10;  first  pro- 
claimed, 12,  l:i:  partial 
triuiniih  in  Holland,  10:  an 
Anabaptist  doctrine,  l'>:  first 
guaranteed,  11,  :i9:  the  ulti- 
mate thouiiht  iif  the  New  Tes- 
tament   1''.  16 

Rhode  Island  Haptist  State  Con- 
vention "•'' 

Salem  :  Williams  b  a  n  i  s  li  e  d 
from,  ;»:  exclude<l  iiicml)ers 
of  church 17,  IM 

Scituate:  Chauncey  pastor  at, 
:<.T  :  belief  in  adidt  immersion 
and  practice  of  infant  im- 
mersion  ■'''•  -W 

Scott,  Richard  :  mention  of  him 
and  wife,  17,  IS;  asserts  im- 
mersion of  Roger  Williams, 
:K  ;  and  length  of  his  connec- 
tion with  the  church.. 3i» 


Screven,  William 

Second  Baptist  Church  in  New- 
port   41,  49,  54,  5o, 

Second  Baptist  Church  in  Prov- 
idence :  separated  from  the 
First  Church,  22,  47-49,  54; 
liecame  extinct 46, 

Smith,  Hezekiah,  d.  n.,  warned 
off  of  (lod's  earth  for  preach- 
ing  10, 

Sprague's  Annals  of  the  Amer- 
ican Baptist  Pulpit,  quoted... 

Stanford,  Rev.  John 

Stanley,  Dean  Artluir  P 

Stiles,  Ezra,  u.  u.  :  mentioned, 
70;  important  unpublished 
manuscri] )t  of 70, 

Story.  Judge,  tribute  to  Roger 
Williams 

Straus,  Oscar  S.,  "  Roger  Wil- 
liams, tlie  Pioneer  of  Relig- 
ious Liberty  " 


39 


Throgmorton.  John,  and  wife, 
excommunicalcil  in  Salem, 
members  in  Proviilence 17 

Tillingluist.  Pardon:  admitted 
to  citizenship  in  Providence, 
20,  .'il :  minister  of  tlie  church, 
20;  built  meeting-linuse.  21; 
gave  it  to  church.  42,  4:5; 
view  of  a  paid  ministry,  45 ; 
knowledge  of  tlie  church,  .51 ; 
says  it  was  Six  Principle,  51, 
6:5;  important  memorandum 
of  deed •''d-  'iS 

Vaughn.  William 48 

Vedder.  Prof.  Henry  C 29,  49 

Vose,  James  C,  i>.  n 70 

Warren  Association 55,  66,  74 

Wayland,  Francis,  n.  d 63 

Westcott.  Stukely.and  wife,  ex- 
communicated in  Salem, 
members  in  Providence 17 


INDEX 


85 


Wheelwright,  Rev.  John on 

Whitsitt,  William  H.,  i).  D...32,  60,  07 
Wiekeiiden,    William :    settled 
ill  Providence,  20 ;    minister 

of  the  church 20,  ;W,  40.  4s,  .")0 

Wightman,  Rev.  Daniel 41 

Williams,  Roger  :  banished,  9  : 
forbidden  to  cross  Massachu- 
setts, 9  ;  went  to  England  via 
New  York,  10:  refused  shelter 
by  the  Pilgrims,  10 ;  cro.ssed 
the  Seekonk  and  welcomed  by 
the-  Indians,  10,  11 :  baptized 
by  Holiman.  11  :  administered 
baptism.  11 ;  nature  of  his 
baptism,  20-3«.  78 :  his  home 
and  grave,  11 :  entered  into 
covenant  with  the  natives,  11 : 
with  his  companions,  11 ; 
founder  of  religious  liberty 
and  a  Baptist  colony,  11,  12; 
did  not  originate  the  idea, 
12;  acquainted  with  Dutch, 
i:^  ;  acquainted  with  Knglisli 
Baptists,  14;  chai-ged  with 
Anabaptistry,  1.5;  founder 
xnd  minister  of  the  First 
Church  in  Providence,  19,  44  ; 
withdrew  from  its  fellow- 
sliip  and    became  a  Seeker, 


19,  20;  remained  in  sentiment 
a  Baptist,  20,  40 :  was  u  n  - 
doubtedly  immersed,  33-o8, 
71,  78;  believed  in  laying 
oil  of  hands,  ."lO :  won  Dr. 
.h)hn  Clarke  to  llie  Baptist 
faith 74 

Willmarth,  .J.  \V..  n.  n 56 

Winslow.  Govenmr.  Ictteifrom, 
to  Williams 25,  26 

Wiiisor,  Rev.  Samuel 58 

Winsor,  Rev.  Samuel,  Jr.  ;  pas- 
tor of  the  church  in  Provi- 
dence, 22 ;  withdrew  and  or- 
ganized church  in  .lohiiston, 
22.  47  ;  the  reasons  for  it .j9-{)2 

Winthroj),  John:  mentioned, 
:>9:  letter  of  Williams  to.  .')0  ; 
says  there  were  Analwptists 
at  Newiwrt 72 

Winthrop's  Journal :  account  of 
Williams'  baptism  in,  17; 
character  of  the  earliest 
ciiurch  in  Newport  as  found 
in,  09;  dLstinction  between 
the  settlers  of  Providence 
and  those  of  Newport  as 
given  by 70 

Witter,  William 23 


';\ 


